Symphonie Cacophonie
by TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Kaede Akamatsu, teen pianist, is having her first big concert in front of the world. Shuichi Saihara, teen detective, has been given a VIP seat for this concert. Who would refuse such an invitation? Not him, that's for sure. It doesn't matter if he's sick as a dog, right? [Non-despair or whatever AU, canon divergence at its fullest, sickfic, blargh]
1. Mélodieuse Fièvre

The place was far larger than what she had expected.

Kaede Akamatsu, teen pianist who had gotten known with her participation to a talk show not so long ago, was doing her first concert on this night, in front of such a large audience. The seat rows seemed infinite and she was wondering if all of them would be able to hear what she would play in a few hours from there.

The piano was already proudly standing on stage. She went to it, checking all of her music sheets were in order. She couldn't get mistaken during her career's grand opening. The Piano Freak was finally going to be the Piano Prodigy.

Her mother had forced her to shop for a pretty yet classy yet fancy yet not too vulgar nor fancy dress earlier this week. She had rehearsed this concert for weeks and weeks, she could almost play her pieces by heart, but having her sheets made her feel safer.

 _Clair de Lune_ would be the ending piece, she decided of so. She was dedicating it to a very special someone, who she invited, and hoped would come see her this night play in front of a large audience for the first time... This person even had a VIP seat, probably not so far away from her parents' seats.

Hopefully they would get along during breaks.

This place was _huge_. He almost got lost in there.

After a few moments of walking around the seats, trying to find the number on his ticket, Shuichi Saihara had finally found where he was supposed to sit.

For a VIP spot, it wasn't that far away from a bathroom. Saying this soothed him up was an understatement: he had been sick as a dog for a few days now, but he wasn't going to bail out when Akamatsu had given him her last VIP ticket remaining. He wondered if he would meet her twin sister, or even her parents. Hopefully he was not going to cause too much noise, drowned by the piano's notes.

People were already here, including a middle-aged couple right next to his seat. He was in the border of the only alley of this VIP balcony.

Well, this piece of information would have mattered if there weren't only three seats in this one balcony, making him alone with who was clearly a couple. The woman's blonde hair and the father's pink eyes leaded him to think they were Mr. and Mrs. Akamatsu...

He felt a bit naked to be around people he didn't know while not wearing his hat, but it would have been both inappropriate and not matching the fanciest outfit he could find in his closet: an ordinary tuxedo. He had a bowtie to go along with it, but considering how shallow his breathing was, he had decided not to wear it. Hopefully in the black of the room nobody would notice his partially unbuttoned shirt.

"Excuse me, sir..." called him a man's voice from his right.

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure your seat is here? This seat is for a very important guest whom our daughter invited..." the main explained.

Shuichi showed his ticket as a way to prove himself.

"It means you are our darling's best friend then! She talks about you so much when she comes back home for weekends!" exclaimed who he could guess was Mrs. Akamatsu.

"We forgot to introduce ourself, haven't we? I am Yoshiki Akamatsu, Kaede's father."

"And I am Ayumi Akamatsu, her mother! What is your name, my dear?"

"I'm Shuichi Saihara, I'm a classmate of Akamatsu..."

"Pleasure to meet you, Saihara!"

The woman did seem worried.

"Are you sick?"

"Huh, yeah... It's just a cold, but I didn't want to make people sick"

The father suddenly interrupted the flow of conversation.

"It's about to start! Look at how lovely Kaede looks!"

He then looked down there, at the stage he could surprisingly see very well from his high-up seat, and does indeed see Akamatsu even prettier than she usually was. She looked like an angel playing the piano.

She sat next behind the piano and started to play the first notes. The atmosphere went completely silent except for delicate, perfect notes filling the air. It was soothing to hear, even when his insides were burning up under a fever he wanted vanished, banned, out of this realm even if it was just for this evening.

He tried to muffle his coughing as much as possible, less for the public than for him to be fully able to listen to the music. His ears were pleased, if it wasn't for the fact they were a bit muffled themselves. Judging by her parents' reactions, they were absolutely blown away.

These melodies were so amazing, he was confused as to how she hadn't been known before. Akamatsu had tremendous talent and it showed on this night. Maybe he was biased, but this music was the best he had ever heard, and for once in his life, Shuichi didn't care if he was being objective or not. All he knew that he was going to congratulate his friend on this at the end of her concert.

One of his coughing fits, during a really impacting piece to make matters worse, made him spit on the floor.

"Saihara, could you be quieter?" asked the father, in a semi-impatient tone.

"I-I'll try..." he replied while keeping back another fit.

An _entracte_ soon came, and as soon as it was announced, Shuichi rushed to the bathroom. He had to check... Something. The carpeted floor of the balcony didn't allow him to check this, he had to have lights around him to be sure about this one small thing. As such, he rushed to the nearest men's bathroom. Taking off his mask in front of the mirror, his fears were confirmed when he saw what remained of his earlier spit on the corner of his mouth.

He had to sit back before he would get too dizzy to do so. Running around to this bathroom got an unexpected toll on him.

The concert didn't have such a long break between its two parts. Soon enough, Akamatsu was back to playing the piano, and with even more intense pieces this time around. Oh, how he wished he could actually hear them as well as he could... Instead, his coughing was getting out of control, her parents were sighing because of the noise he was making, his ears were getting muffled and, even worse, he was starting to wheeze.

"Urgh... Shuichi, get yourself together. You can't do this to Akamatsu" he told himself, all the while he was panting for air.

It was cruel to hope the concert would end soon enough, but he felt like he was ready to pass out already. All that was keeping him awake was his care for her and her music.

His fever was getting the best out of him. He was sure that he couldn't see straight anymore, or at least, not as well as before. The black of the place helped him not worry about this too much, but when he would see her -if he could still walk up to her at least- it would be a far bigger issue.

Suddenly, after a piece, Akamatsu spoke up in the microphone next to her keyboard, for the first time in the whole evening.

"I want to dedicate this one piece to my best friend, who's been with me through my fears and anxiety, no matter piano-related or not. I wish he loved himself as much as I love him, but for now, I'll play for him and for everyone what he told me was his favorite classical piece... Saihara, this is for you!"

Shuichi bolted from his crouching position, bent over to cough and spit, to a normal position. He knew he had tears in his eyes, and he grinned under his mask. Her parents were looking at him as _Clair de Lune_ started resounding in the giant room, from the stage to the balcony.

Yes, he could be there for hours listening to her playing piano, but before he had the time to truly enjoy everything he had missed during the evening, it stopped and she had already said her goodbyes.

An encore got requested, and Akamatsu played a piece she had prepared just in case for this occasion. She told him about playing the Ninth Symphony in case an encore happened. No surprise there, but he still appreciated it despite knowing before everyone else.


	2. Toux, Inquiétude, Crachat, Pleurs

Kaede, still barely finished with her concert, couldn't believe with her own eyes how much praise she's getting. People waiting to get her autograph, flowers thrown on stage from higher seats, people cheering for her... If she had known, she would have prepared a second encore.

Her parents and friends were probably proud of her by now, and she hoped she had pleased Saihara with the second-to-last piece she played. Her concert was a success and it was in part thanks to his attempts at motivating her and making her feel reassured about her skills.

Nothing was better than getting motivated by the one she loved.

Backstage, she could see her parents in her preparing room, a wide smile on their faces. She rushed to them, despite wearing high heels, and hugged them.

"We're both really proud of you, honey! You were fan-tas-tic!" cried her mom with tears of happiness running down her cheeks.

"There was a boy next to us... Is he the Saihara you mentionned before playing _Claire de Lune_?"

"You mean Shuichi Saihara? Sure, it's him! I gave him my last VIP seat because sis wouldn't be here... I would have given him a place anyway..."

"He was, how to put it nicely..." suddenly changed in tone her dad, "noisy."

"Noisy?"

"He would cough, and I think spit, a lot. Don't worry, it didn't prevent us from profiting from your amazing performance honey!"

"Where is he?!"

Kaede's tone got far sharper once she heard the word "cough".

"He was in the bathroom when we left our seats. He should be in front of your room by now..."

A knock answered her question.

Kaede opened the door and, sure thing, here was her classmate dressed in a tuxedo in front of her.

"So you did come... I thought you may have something going on, but you still came!"

She wanted to hug him so badly, but in front of her parents who seemed mad at him, it didn't seem like such a brilliant idea.

He coughed in his sleeve.

"Hey, Saihara... You're all right? You seem so pale..."

"S-sure...!"

His other hand was behind his back. Kaede wondered what he could be hiding. She hoped it was a present though...

"Oh, huh... Here you go..."

He looked away as he showed her the most beautiful bouquet she had ever seen. She was probably biased...

"These are for me? They're so pretty! Thank you so much, Saihara!"

She took them with such delicacy that he visibly looked surprised.

"Oh, huh... I hope you liked the concert!"

"It was... Beautiful..."

He would cough every so often. She was seriously getting worried.

" _He wears his shirt inappropriately, don't you think?"_

" _It seems perverted... I hope he's not planning to do such things to our precious daughter"_

" _Apparently he is a detective, but he seems shady..."_

Her parents' whispers weren't... Not good to hear.

"You're sure you're gonna be alright?" asked Kaede, expecting him to cough up a lung at some point.

"I... Not so sure..."

He bent over to cough again, and soon enough, he spat, almost on either of her shoes.

"That's gross, Mr. Saihara..." whispered her parents.

He dropped to his knees and she kneeled down to him as soon as he did, supporting his shoulders.

"Fuck..." he panted.

"You should have stayed home, Saihara..."

He looked at her, half smiling and half crying.

"I couldn't... Not when you invite me to your big first concert..." he replied, out of breath.

"You've even coughing up weird stuff... I wouldn't hold a grudge because you were sick..."

She helped him to get up again by propping him on her shoulder.

Her mom's face distorted into some kind of horrified disgust.

"Darling, your dress... Your dress..."

It took Kaede a few seconds before looking at the source of the problem: an ugly, ugly spot on her dress. It looked brown from where she was, and she couldn't let him fall back to the ground just to check some dirt she put there by accident.

"Mom, it's not that important," she said.

"I hope it goes away at the pressing..." the mother continued.

Inside, Kaede wanted to scream " _it's just a dress mom_ ", but it wasn't a viable option when she had spent the afternoon trying to find this goddamn dress. She was just wondering where this spot came from. She could have sworn it was clean and pristine as new when she was playing the piano.

"What even is this spot?" asked her dad.

"It's just some dirt! Leave it down! We got a sick boy to take care of!"

"But, darling, he was being noisy during your premiere... Isn't it inappropriate?"

"He's _sick_ , mom! And when you're sick you cough, jeez!"

Coincidentally, Saihara started to cough again as soon as she had pronounced the word "cough". It wasn't pretty, as what was expected.

He spat again, and everybody had to realize two things: the spot on the dress was his spit from earlier, and that it wasn't brown.

It was red.

"Goodness, what did you catch?!" yelled Kaede.

He jerked away from her shoulder, using the wall as support.

"None of your business... Goodbye..."

"How rude..." her mother whispered.

"Saihara, wait!"

He staggered for a few steps before promptly collapsing to the ground, still coughing, and now she was starting to realize his breathing wasn't normal. It sounded more than congested, as if he had trouble breathing altogether.

She kneeled down to him again, ignoring her parents' call for her to get away.

" _Instead of whining about manners and a spot on a dress, what about calling an ambulance?!"_

"An ambulance? You're sure bringing him to a doctor's not enough, Kaede?" asked her father.

"He coughs up blood and breaths horribly, what more do you need?!" she yelled back.

Her father, doctor as he was, rushed down to the boy's side.

"Darling... He's wheezing. Call an ambulance."

"Dad, why did you take so long?! You've seen that he wasn't feeling well!" she continued to scream, her fingers bent in anxiety.

"That's, huh..."

"Manners are less important than health, right?! Saihara wouldn't be so rude if he wasn't sick!"

Kaede Akamatsu, seventeen, piano prodigy who made a successful premiere, was crying in despair.

"I just want him to be alright..."

She sat him correctly against the wall before pressing her forehead against his.

"He's burning up too... It's already a miracle he didn't pass out..."

He looked at her, heavily breathing, quiet outside of his coughing noise.

"You really should have stayed in bed..." she whispered.

Her mom was telling their localization and her father had disappeared.

Her father came back a few seconds later with a stethoscope in his hand.

"He was wearing a mask when we were in our seats... Where it is?"

Saihara, with a shaky hand, took it from one of his pockets and put it back on.

"Kaede, sweetie, let me examine him."

She was resentful and doubting, but still let him do so.

She had both regrets and didn't have when her father started to open her friend's shirt. It wasn't the time to do so, but… But there was no excuse.

"Oh goodness, he is far sicker than he looked like he was earlier..."

"Ha, you finally notice!"

"Darling, what does this boy have?" asked her mother, still disgusted by what was happening.

"I would say something awful..."

"As in?" insisted Kaede.

Her father put the mask on Saihara's chin before inserting a thermometer.

"See? Bringing my first aid kit was useful" he teased his wife.

It beeped extremely fast.

"When do they arrive?" he asked, his voice going a pitch down.

"In a few minutes... Why?"

He didn't reply, but Kaede still looked at the thermometer before gasping.

40.4.

She hadn't hallucinate it.

Even when she could hear the sirens.

Even when she saw medical staff take him away.

Even in the ambulance.

She couldn't unsee the damn number.

She was crying, crying, crying.

Her parents were finally quiet.

It was midnight, and despite her success, Kaede was crying her heart out in worry.


	3. Labyrinthe Blanc

She had barely slept last night.

Get to bed late, wake up to a nightmare every so often.

Kaede was restless, if she had to be honest. And piano was the last thing she was thinking about.

"Kaede, sweetie, time for your rehearsal!" called her mother from downstairs in an enthusiastic voice.

She went downstairs, motivation at its lowest.

"What's wrong sweetie?"

"You know what's wrong."

The woman looked puzzled and, after a short but awkward silence, it came to her mind.

"It's this boy from yesterday, right?"

"Yeah... I'm so worried for him..."

"Then... What about we cancel today's lesson and pay him a visit?"

"Mom... Thank you."

Even from her mother's car, the hospital was intimidating to Kaede. The huge white buildings rose to the sky with their multiple floors and parts, and she was getting confused by how many different directions the signs were giving. Of course, she wasn't going to the urgence section, and not to the staff parking lot, but there were so many names that it was hard not to feel down because of all this medical babbling.

Once inside, it was getting worse: stairs and stairs and elevators and stairs and elevators... There was a queue to the receptionist's desk. She needed to be patient, she knew the receptionists were doing their best.

The desk to ask for a room number was happily more crowded than the one announcing people needing to the hospitalized, and even then, it was mostly pregnant women.

Kaede had never liked going to hospitals, even if it was to see family friends having babies. The heavy scent of medicine and bacterial agents, the pristine environment hiding blood in the operation rooms, the atmosphere of worry and death crawling under her skin...

She didn't like hospitals, and she didn't have to wait for her childhood appendicitis to do so.

After a few, lasting forever minutes, they finally arrived in front of the receptionist and were able to ask the dreaded question.

"How may I help you?" asked the desk woman.

"We're here to see her friend." replied her mother.

"What section?"

"Huh... What's the section for the sick?" asked the pianist.

"Well, the section for the sick, miss..."

"Oh, riiiiiiight!"

"Are they a child or an adult?"

"He's a teen, he's her age" replied once again her mother.

"It's the same as adults then. What's his name?"

Kaede went completely silent. It's as if her voice was stuck in her throat.

"What's wrong, honey? You don't remember his name? I can't remember it..."

"It.. It's not that..." she barely muttered.

She gulped.

"It's Shuichi Saihara..."

She had such a hard time pronouncing it, she felt weirded out by herself. Maybe it was the context and the atmosphere of the hospital.

The receptionist typed the name on her computer. The wait was heavy.

"Room D404. Have a nice day, goodbye."

As such, Kaede and her mother went for the adventure that was trying to find a hospital room.

"She said there was a section for the sick" restated the teen.

The older one paused for a few seconds.

"What's wrong, honey?" she asked in a low voice.

"Nothing... I'm just scared of how he's going to be when we'll see him in his room..."

"That's understandable... You know what he has?"

"No... He didn't reply to my text messages since yesterday evening... I hope he's not feeling that bad..."

They went through what seemed to be an ever-growing number of corridors, trying their hardest to spot something beginning with a D.

Eventually, they did come across a D wing of the building, and the panels were confirming they had stepped in the right direction.

D101, D102, D103... Not there.

D112, D113... Not there either.

They could see people waiting, discussing or having phone calls in small waiting spaces and darkened spots of the place as they were less lightened by the long artificial light bars on the ceiling.

"Seems like all the rooms on this floor are in D100. Let's try finding him on the fourth floor, sweetie."

"Yeah..."

They went upstairs, going up the three flights seperating them from the D400 rooms. Indeed, as soon as they arrived there, they saw signs indicating the D400 rooms they were searching for were there.

"It is here, honey!" announced her mom.

"Huh, if it is not too much to ask... What do you have in your backpack?" she then asked.

"My miniature piano..." simply replied the teen.

The woman blinked.

"Your piano? But I thought you didn't want to play after yesterday's events..."

"Saihara once told me he really enjoyed it when I played the piano, so it's a small something I can do. Besides, he probably didn't hear much of the concert anyway..."

"Is there something else, except for music sheets?"

"A thermos of hot chocolate"

"When did you get the time to prepare it?"

"Last night, when I woke up around 3AM. I didn't drink at all in the end..."

Before she was actually mentally ready, they had arrived in front of the D404 room.

Sure enough, its name tag was spelling _最原 終一_.

Kaede's trembling fist reached for the door, still somewhat unsure of if she could do it or not.

Her imagination was going wild.

She eventually forced herself to knock on the door, and wait anxiously for some kind of "yes" or "yeah" or "hmm" or "enter"...

All she got was a shrill sound, almost like a dentist office's ring bell.

"He probably can't speak" calmly stated her mother.

Well that was heart-sinking material to say the least.

Her shaking hand slowly opened the door, revealing an unconscious Saihara and a nurse next to him.

Her hearing immediately picked on the machinery in the room. A horrible mess of sounds. So that was what they called a ventilator...

Its sounds were morbid.

"Are you acquaintances of Mr. Saihara here?" the nurse immediately interrogated them.

"Yes" replied her mom.

"Then I'll ask you to leave. As of now, we only accept close family members..."

When she thought about it, Saihara had never told her much about his family. She only vaguely knew about an uncle who had went missing a while ago? Was he living on his own with some income source? Maybe that was why he was sleeping at the dorm even on weekends.

"I'm his girlfriend."

"His girlfriend?" responded the now surprised nurse.

"Yes, his girlfriend."

Her mother was as surprised, if not more, as the nurse.

"For how long have you been dating?" asked the medical staff woman.

"Our first anniversary is coming soon" lied the pianist.

"Are you officially dating?"

"N... Not yet..."

"Then I'll ask you to leave again."

Kaede clenched her fists.

"But he has no actual family!"

"What do you mean, Kaede?"

"As in? Explain yourself, Miss."

"He... He lives on his own since he started to attend Hope's Peak... He has nobody for him when he gets home... He has nobody to take care of him when he's sick!"

"And the hospital staff?"

"You may be staff, but wouldn't you want to have someone close to you be there for you when you need it the most?"

Kaede sighed before continuing.

"He's on his own, nobody was going to visit him today if it wasn't for me... He has troubles opening to others... You can't send his only visitors home, right?"

"He must have parents. I've heard he had an uncle."

"His uncle isn't here for him since he became the Ultimate Detective, overshadowed by that success, he moved away! His parents aren't a thing, at least not around him! What do you need?! What issue do you have with a close friend and classmate staying by his side?!"

"It's the procedure, miss..."

"I don't give a shit about procedures! I want to stay with the guy I love when he's sick in the hospital. It's my fault if he's like this in the first place! Let me pay back my debt!"

Her eyes slightly twitched to him during her tirade.

"What's your problem with me not being his girlfriend yet... Isn't it lonely for both you and him to watch over him when you know nothing about him except for some blood type and condition... I... I just want to pay my debt..."

"Aren't you the teen prodigy who filled the Tsukikari Auditorium last night?"

"It's me... And if I hadn't invited him to my concert, he wouldn't be here... Maybe he would be in our school's infirmary... Maybe he would be home, feeling better than that... Not in a goddamn hospital where you're trying to keep him apart from people not linked to him by blood!"

"Kaede, sweetie, calm down..."

"But... But... But..."

" _Let her... stay here..."_


	4. Tes Yeux sont Si Beaux

The three women all turned their heads towards the boy.

"Mr. Saihara, you..." muttered the nurse.

"Since when were you awake, Saihara?!" yelled Kaede in complete surprise.

"Put back your mask on!"

"Since they entered I think... Let Akamatsu... Stay..." he simply muttered.

"B-but... Mr. Saihara... They're not official family..."

"Please let them stay..."

"F-fine... Have a nice day..." said the nurse as she left.

"Sweetie, I'm letting you two on your own. I'm sure you don't want me around."

"Thanks, mom…"

Kaede, a small smile on her face, pulls out the chair next to the bed and sat down by his side.

"Hello..."

"Hi..."

"Don't force yourself to speak, maybe you can write or something..."

A short silence followed, and she forced herself to break it.

"You're feeling any better than yesterday?"

He nodded positively to the question.

"Good then..."

"It's not your fault... Akamatsu..." he whispered with his trouble breathing.

"It is. If I hadn't invited you... You wouldn't have felt obliged to come... And you wouldn't be in such a condition..."

"I was already sick... It's good that you called an ambulance..."

"That's... That's true. And you're living alone so there was nobody to bring you to a doctor... I'm glad I could help you then…"

"You said that you loved me."

 _Bullseye._

"You heard it?!"

"That... And pretending we were... Dating...?"

"That was because she refused friends!"

"What about being my sister...?"

So he viewed her as his sister. **Shit.**

"We... We don't look like each other..."

"I... I..."

She was trying to lie to herself. That didn't work. Her subconscious was doing against her.

"Yes, yes, yes I love you, Saihara! I'm not even pretending anymore! I... I just want you to get better and not feed lonely..."

He slightly smiled and grabbed her hand from under the covers.

"So do I..."

He looked away.

"I... I'm sorry, it was... Kind of lame..."

"Who cares! Our feelings are mutual! It's amazing!"

She softly climbed up the bed and gently hugged him.

He winced and she got further right away.

"Did I hurt you?!"

"No... It's been sore before…"

He coughs every so often, but you're less worried in a hospital.

"What did you get exactly?"

"Pneumonia..."

She felt like she had read some story about that somewhere. The name was weird. It was... Average.

"That's horrible!"

"It's nothing that can't be cured..."

She got flashbacks from some Internet videos and that time they studied _Les Misérables_ in class in junior high.

"It... It's not too painful?"

"It is... But I'll be fine… Don't worry..."

Kaede, in an attempt to verify the claim, put a hand on her forehead and another on his.

"You're still running a high fever... But don't worry, nurse Kaede will take care of you!"

As such, taking the role of the nurse, she fetched her handkerchief and soaked it in the small bathroom before gently putting it on his forehead.

She rushed to the bathroom and, out of her backpack, she got out a costume.

"It's said humour is a great remedy!"

He got even redder when she came back from the bathroom.

"W... What... Why..." he stuttered.

He was hiding his face with his hands.

"I take being your nurse really seriously you know!" she replied, enthusiastic.

"You take it too seriously...!"

"Naaaaah!"

She climbed on the bed again.

"You really mind?"

His hand searched for his hat on his empty nightstand as he looked away.

"Huh... N-no..."

She took his head in his hands.

"You're so much prettier without your hat Shuichi..."

"You... You think...?"

"Yeah! Your eyes are so pretty, you shouldn't hide them!"

"Thank you..."

"Look at me in the eyes please..."

He slowly did so.

"You're so beautiful... I love you so much..."

"But I'm sick… And have a terrible case of bad hair... I'm not..."

"Stop it, you're really handsome and that's it. You can't recover well if you're busy hating yourself!"

"I... Don't hate myself..."

"You are so much better than you think you are! Let me nurse you for a bit and you'll see!"

"I... Just don't really know what you find to me..."

"You're clever and your deduction skills are on point!"

"Not that much..."

"You're kind and good-hearted!"

"Huh..."

"You're a great person, and if you don't like yourself, I'll make you do so!"

His eyes went dim all of a sudden.

"Shuichi?"

"Y... You're so pretty Kaede..."

She was pleased, sure, but it was out of character.

He smiled absentmindedly as he grabbed her waist.

"What the..."

She was utterly confused until she heard whimpers.

"Fucking fever..."

"What's wrong?!"

"I was about to get delirious again..."

He tightened his grip.

"Hehehehe, you're so sweet and fluffeh..."

"What's happening to you Saihara?!"

"N-nothing... Heeeee…"

He got up from her waist and looked into her eyes. His own were reminding her of a dead fish, or those of a plushie: lifelife but, ultimately, lifeless.

He put a hand on his face, shook it up, and his eyes were back to normal.

"Urgh... Akamatsu, get out of here before something bad happens..."

His head went down again and up again and his eyes were dead again.

"Don't leeeeeeaaaaaaave Kaede..!" he shouted as he hugged her chest tightly.

"Le... Let me go, Saihara! You're delirious!"

"Not true..."

She got free instantly afterwards.

"Get out of here...!" she heard between two coughing fits.

Right after that, the eyes went dim again and he rushed towards her, to which she replied with a violent slap all across his face.

"Sorry... But you're scaring me..."

His eyes got life again. She was out of the bed, at the other side of the room, her breathing quick in frequency. Yes, she was utterly scared for her life. But she tried not to blame him for it, his dead eyes were a sign he wasn't himself.

"I... I'll take a breather..." she said while trying to calm herself down.


	5. Regarde-Moi avec ces Yeux Larmoyants

After having changed clothes again, she went to the patio space of the hospital, not that far away from where she was previously, and walked around trying to sort everything out.

So, if she made it short: they both confessed to each other, her feelings are mutual, but he's delirious and when he is he tries to grope her.

Perfect.

Maybe he should try taking a breather, she thought. It couldn't hurt... If he wasn't sick with pneumonia that is. Exposing himself to the cold temperatures of January? Not a good idea at all, and she didn't need to be the Ultimate Doctor to know such a thing.

Feeling cold, Kaede went upstairs again, but not before checking the text message her mother had sent her: "I'm picking you up around 6PM". It was soon half past two. Man, she had time to understand everything behind Saihara's delirious tendencies now.

She knocked at the door once again, this time receiving a whiny "yes...?" as a direct answer.

Huh, still better than the ring from earlier, right?

She slowly entered, only to see her friend bent over himself, probably whimpering to himself to. That was... Heart-breaking. No matter how many delirious attempts at possessing her tights and chest, she still felt immensely sorry.

"Akamatsu... It's you...?"

"Yeah, it's me... Why?"

"You... You're feeling any better...? You're so creepy when you're delirious..."

"I-it should have stabilized by now... I'm really sorry..."

"You... You knew what you were doing...?"

"N-no, but the nurses told me I did the same thing to them... Please, Akamatsu, leave me alone..."

She was now in front of the bed, directly facing him.

"Give me back my hat... Please..."

"No."

"Why...?"

His face, other than coughing, looked like despair had haunted him.

"Why...?!"

"Because you shouldn't need it! You shouldn't fear looking into people's eyes, Saihara!"

Kaede got right next to him, on his side.

"Look at me, Saihara."

His head didn't move.

"Look at me."

Still no response.

"Please, please look at me..."

He finally looked at her, his head down.

"Lift up your head, Saihara. Look at me into the eyes."

He coughed, but his eyes didn't bulge. She sighed and took the matter in her hands: she made him look at her.

Even now, his eyes were looking away. Kaede softly sighed for herself: would he never be able to look at her directly?

"You wear a hat not to look at people in the eyes, right? But why? Outside of what you told me about this one investigation I mean"

"I... I'm not worthy of your attention... Please get out before I lost control of myself again..."

"You're crying..."

He even stopped coughing.

"You're crying, Saihara..."

In a move that she never saw coming, her friend was now hugging her tightly, sobbing in her arms. She couldn't help herself but hug him back, wondering what to do to soothe him physically.

She just noticed how burning his skin was under his half-buttoned shirt (she hadn't noticed that yet either?). They probably didn't even have clothes other than what he was wearing this night to put him in. What a sad fact...

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice cracking with worries now.

"I wish I was like you, Akamatsu... You're brave... Kind... Gentle but not a pushover...I don't know what you're doing with a loser like me... I don't even deserve my 'Ultimate Detective' title!"

"What do you mean? You deserve your Ultimate title! You're so clever nobody guesses quicker than you do! And even then, you're kind and gentle too, what do you mean? You're timid, sure, but it adds to your charm..."

"Akamatsu, I was assaulting you earlier!"

"You weren't conscious of it! You didn't injure me! Everything's fine!"

"But..."

"Shh... You're feeling miserable, you can't hassle yourself with all this negativity and all this mental pain... Everything'll be fine, I promise..."

He broke away for a bit to finally look into her eyes directly.

"See? Not that hard! You can do this, Shuichi."

A small smile drew itself beneath his tears.

"I love you so much..." he said, in a slightly intimidated tone.

"So do I..."

She then felt him severely heave up. It only took her a few minutes to realize: he had fallen asleep.

Kaede gently put him back to bed, put the thermos on his nightstand and got her piano out, rehearsing some pieces without pressing the keys.


	6. Je suis Là pour Toi

Of course, "spending an hour or even more in a room with someone else sleeping" wasn't in Kaede's main hobbies, at all. However, the calmness of the situation was soothing her after so many things happened to both of them, but especially to him. He was aggressive when he went into delirium, but she couldn't possibly hold a grudge against him for that.

Noticing his breathing was starting get really troubled, borderline wheezing, her eyes searched across the room in the hope something in her surrounding could help with the growing issue. She then noticed the mask connected to the noisy machinery (that she had forgotten about until this moment) and, softly, put it back on his mouth and nose.

Despite the fact this pneumonia was devouring him from the inside, Shuichi seemed rather calm and even at peace when he was fast asleep, lightly snoring, perfectly still in bed except for his chest. This sight was more than pleasing to the pianist: he was finally finding some rest after all this pain and exhaustion and self-hatred.

She surprised herself to hold his hand, and barely noticed so when it got squeezed. Damn, he had more physical strength than she originally thought!

She wondered why he was suddenly squeezing her hand that strongly, but that was before she saw his face distorted by what seemed to be some kind of anguish, at least, it was pain he was showing. She hated that, but drops of sweat rolling on his temples confirmed her fears to be true.

He was having a nightmare.

She got her hand out of his grip and rushed to the bathroom, taking with her a bucket she had filled with cold water and a towel. She found both of these things in the bathroom, and was ever so thankful to have found them.

She wiped his face regularly while he was rapidly moving, as if he tried to undo the bed sheets around him. Her worries were ever-so-growing, and maybe his fever hadn't went down as much as she hoped it would.

After a good twenty minutes of witnessing such a thing, he had calmed down and drifted into peaceful sleep.

That was, until a knock at the door happened and a nurse entered the room.

"Miss Akamatsu?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you do us a favour?"

"What is it?"

"If you don't mind, we would like you to get some of Mr. Saihara's personal belongings for his hospital stay."

"I'll do it! But where are his keys? Where does he live?"

"His keys are inside the nightstand's drawer. Let me write his address out for you, Miss. Thank you very much."

Kaede arrived in front of an apartment lot, around six or seven floors high. She was a bit intimidated, but she had survived getting out of the hospital's giant yard, so she thought she would be perfectly fine finding his flat. It was on the third floor, in the quietest part of the town she had known until then.

She unlocked the door and entered.

The flat was a mess, and she knew it as soon as she stepped a foot in there: she almost fell on an empty water bottle on the ground.

The apartment itself wasn't the biggest thing ever, lucky for her. It had a main room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen. Nothing fancy, nothing out of the ordinary. By "lucky", she was internally referring to how dark the flat was: all curtains were drawn, and she hadn't find the switch yet. This was going to be far harder than what she had originally expected.

Once she had found and turned on the switch, the full view of the mess that was this flat unveiled itself.

The floor was covered in bottles, used boxes of medicine, and various other pieces of garbage, but what caught her attention the most were the incredible amount of uses tissues who had missed the bin. It was as if he had tried to throw them from afar, probably from his bed judging by the position of the tissue balls.

Actually, everything in this room pointed to him living in and from his bed at one point.

This was... Disturbing to say the least. The idea that he had been sick for longer than she thought, and that the only reason he came out of his home during their winter break was to hear her play the piano. It was painfully touching.

His phone was on his nightstand, but when she tried to turn it on, she realized the battery had run dry a while back. The power adaptation was still plugged on the wall, but the phone wasn't. She did so herself and got up to the closet.

The closet was less messy than the rest of the flat, but the pile of dirty laundry on the ground explained pretty well why it seemed rather empty. Kaede grabbed a pyjama (there was only one remaining, picking wasn't that hard), a sweater (he had one of those? Who would have thought), a few sshirts here and there and a pair of trousers.

She didn't expect him to wear most of them, but she still gently put them in a luggage case she had found somewhere else in the flat. She also grabbed the remaining water bottles next to the bed, before her eyes fixated on something else next to his nightstand.

Kaede took one of the empty boxes of medicine, curious as to what they originally contained. It was a generic headache illness, and another box was cough syrup, and another was a generic throat-soothing pills box... He was trying to patch himself up as much as possible, but it didn't prevent his condition to worsen and worsen. That explained the sticky brown spots on the nightstand and floor: he was pouring himself syrup that fell from the spoon.

Kaede stopped by the kitchen, only to notice it was pristine compared to the rest of flat... If not for the thick layer of dust on everything that was the fridge. Fridge that was empty. Poor guy really was too weak to get out of the house until her concert. That forsaken vacation prevented him from getting better... And it was already about to end. Life was horrible.

His phone finally had enough battery to turn on again. She unplugged and took the adapter with her, leaving the flat and locking the door behind her again. On the way back to the hospital, she was reading his messages.

She had guessed his password was "akamatsu"...

His inbox was filled with messages from Momota, asking him about the math homework, to why he wasn't responding, to how he was doing, to if he hadn't been robbed in a dark alley, to why he wasn't responding again... She could feel fear and anxiety and a kind of paranoia building up as the messages went on.

He also had one message from Harukawa, asking him to reply to Momota's messages.

And Ouma had sent in a "oh shit waddup" meme.

Kaede saw the messages she sent right after the concert had ended and that he had been taken away.

"Saihara, are you okay?"

"Did you go home? Are you still in the hospital?"

"Please reply to me, I'm worried you know!"

"You have someone home for you, right?"

She was feeling a bit awkward to read her own messages on his phone, especially since she couldn't help but get reminded of her breaking down in front of her parents.

The road was lonely but it didn't feel that long when she exploring what he had missed for a good three days. How much time had he spent surviving in his bed exactly? She couldn't forget the brown sticky spots on the floor... Some were really brown, some less... Was that blood? That weird thing he had spat out the evening before? Please no!

She was... Deeply disturbed. Her classmate, her friend... No, her crush, her mutual crush was... Dying? He was in such a horrible, horrible shape...

No matter how many times she shook her head in an attempt to forget the feeling crawling under her skin, she couldn't brush off this horrible thought.

The scent of death and the horrid sound of a broken requiem.

When she was in front of the door of his room, she felt her strength vanish. She let go of the luggage. She was... Feeling kind of defeated really.

Was that despair?

Was it the end?

No... She was the first one to know he was stronger than he thought, than everybody thought. He would pull through this.

Hospitals are here to save people. He would be saved. He would heal and live like before.

What nurse was she if she lost hope for her patient?

This time, Kaede clenched her fist in positivity, in determination.

" _I'll help you!_ " She whispered to herself before knocking at the door.


	7. Double Solitude

Kaede got a "Yes..." and entered the room.

Here he was, still fast asleep, his breathing stabilized. The doctor was the one who replied to her.

"Welcome back Miss Akamatsu"

"Hello..."

She slowly approached, the luggage tightly hold in her hands.

"How... How is he doing...?"

"Somehow, his fever finally started to go down since this morning..."

"That's... That's amazing..."

She felt like crying.

"I see that you brought some belongings with you"

"Yeah... He must have let it get worse because it was a mess..."

"Miss Akamatsu, can I ask you to be quiet for a few seconds?"

"Huh... Yes?"

"Thank you."

He then put the stethoscope on her classmate's chest, and she only noticed then that his shirt was wide open.

She stayed awkwardly red for instants before the doctor spoke up again.

"His heartbeats are still really fast. I would say around twice too fast."

"But why?"

"Because the body still needs oxygen but has troubles getting some in with his lungs partly filled with liquid. It's also why he breaths so quickly."

Gross...

"He is getting better, don't worry this much. If you don't mind, I'll leave now. Goodbye and have a nice day, Miss Akamatsu."

He buttoned up Saihara's shirt again and left without any added word. She opened the luggage and checked if he was awake: he was still sleeping, not even waken up by the earlier discussion.

The pianist absentmindedly started to speak to him despite his sleep.

"You know... Momota was really worried for you too. You weren't responding to his messages. You should reply to him when you get to use your phone... I put it to recharge its battery on your nightstand..."

"I brought you the last clean clothes you had... I gave what was laying on your floor to the staff so they could clean these. Your flat was such a mess."

"Now that I think about it, you must get sticky in these..."

She reddened.

"Guess someone has to do it..."

Kaede grabbed the clean pajama she had brought with her from his home. She faced the bed, sweating heavily for a good minute.

She softly took off the sheets covering him, trying not to wake him up.

"Looks like it's gonna be harder than I thought..."

She gulped.

As soon as she started unbuttoning his shirt, another thought came to her mind.

"No matter what, I'm not changing your underwear."

Fully unbuttoning his shirt was quicker than she had expected. Holding the cloth revealed something else to her:

"God, it's soaked... You really needed to change clothes..."

She grabbed a washcloth (she miraculously managed to find one in his bathroom), dipped it in the bucket and, gasp, started to clean the mess herself.

"No offense, Saihara, but you stink right now..."

It took her a few minutes of feeling too embarrassed to be effective, but after a while, she felt comfortable in her rubbing.

"When you feel like it, you should take a shower, it would do wonders I'm sure..."

She then gently put back on the clean buttoned pyjama top, careful not to wake up him or not to make the mask get off.

"Okay... Now that this is done, guess I get to see what underwear you have down there..."

Kaede took a deep breath and... Touched the pants.

They were the ones he was already wearing on that fateful evening. They really had no clothes for him. She looked away as she dropped these down, perfectly conscious she would... Have to... See that...

God that was embarrassing.

She was facing both his naked legs and his underwear. It was embarrassing to realize she had wondered what it looked like, but she still grabbed her washcloth again and did the same as for the top, the stench of feverish sweat polluting her nose and lungs.

"Don't worry about that though, you may not smell like a flower but that's okay, you're sick... You just take a shower and everything's fine..."

Once she was done, she dried up his legs with a dry towel and, before completely redressing him, sighed to see she hadn't triggered any weird reaction under the striped fabric.

"You're all dressed up now! Feels better, right?" She continued to tell him.

Kaede got to his face and dipped the cloth again, starting to wipe this part with her wet washcloth.

"I've heard sweating is good to evacuate a fever, but I wonder if it's that true... Don't you sweat because you're cooking inside? Why would it get rid of itself? Anyway, your bangs are soaked... You should wash your hair too when you feel better."

She paused before keeping on.

"You must feel so alone when you're not at the dorm. There was no one to take care of you, to check on you, to be with you at home. That's so sad... You should have called one of us, we could have done something... You can call me if you need help..."

The girl sat on the bed, her back to him.

"I always thought you were alone but able to pull through it... Actually, you're just alone and lost and think there's no one for you... You even refused to admit I loved you... I wonder what makes you think you're all alone. Why are you feeling lonely?"

"I... I don't know anymore, Saihara. I thought I knew you before today, but the more I'm around you and your life, I realize I didn't know you that much. I didn't know you were alone. I didn't know you were completely on your own... Or did I hope you were as lucky as I am? I knew you had a low self-esteem but didn't know you were downright hating yourself for a yes or a no... Why do you keep all of this to yourself? Don't you trust us? Not even Momota? Not... Not even the one you love...?"

She sniffled.

"Ah... Your flat was a mess. A complete mess. Why didn't you call anybody for help? Why did you let yourself get so sick? You lived from your bed, right? There must be someone out there worried for you! Everyone as one! We... We are yours. Those who care about you. Me and our other friends. You... You need to trust people, for your own sake."

"I know it's hard and I know what you've been through... It doesn't make it any less needed. You can't always do everything by yourself, and I hope this fucking illness will make you understand so if my words don't work."

"I... I just want you to be happy, that's all... I don't even care with you would be in love if it wasn't for me, I just want you to have a good life and people you can trust and who can trust in you... Friendship is such a beautiful and necessary thing, you can't just tell yourself 'I'll be fine if I know how to everything by myself' because then you fall ill and you realize you need others... Why did you pretend you were all right yesterday?!"

Her tone got sharp, filled with frustration and anger, as she clenched the bed sheets herself.

"Why didn't you tell us anything?! You had seen some of Momota's messages! You were fucking wheezing! What's wrong with you and going to a doctor, or calling for one, or even warning us about the fact you were too sick to go there yourself? Why did you still pretend to be all right in front of me when you were coughing up... Cough... Blood..."

She was almost screaming, choking back on sobs. She felt... Powerless.


	8. Je te Crois, Crois-Moi

A lone coughing noise got her attention and, as she wiped away her tears, she turned her hand in the direction of the formerly sleeping boy.

"Sa... Sa..."

She was still sobbing. Not good. She was supposed to be the strong one.

He silently rose up from the sheets, put his mask away and took her in his arms from behind.

"What's wrong, Akamatsu...?"

"Y-you... That's what's wrong..."

"Wha...?"

His grip loosened.

"You... What you did is my problem..."

"What do you mean...?"

"You made me worry beyond reason! I thought you would die! I'm still scared for your life! Why didn't you say anything?"

Her voice softened. She could feel her sadness in her throat.

"Don't you trust us...? Don't you trust me...?"

He looked down.

"You managed to confess to me, but you don't trust me? You... You went to my concert, and despite feeling so badly, you still tried to convince me you weren't doing so bad... Why the lies...?"

"I... I... I didn't want to make you feel bad yesterday... It was your premiere and all..."

"Let me tell you, you did worse than good... Of course I'm happy that you still came, but sacrificing yourself to do that? That's unacceptable! I can't let you get deadly sick for a concert!"

She got out of his loose embrace, got up and fully faced him.

"You know... I actually think it's a good idea you came, because you got taken care of in the end... Brutally... My parents were awful to you, sure, but you were going to wither away in your flat if you didn't come... I can't believe you had to attend my concert to get help..."

She took a deep breath.

"Shuichi. You need to trust people! You'll not always be able to do everything on your own! Today is an example, but what if you had broken something? What if you didn't come to see me play? Momota and Harukawa sent you messages too! You... You have people you can trust, so trust us! We're your friends, right? Friends are here to help each other, aren't they?"

"If you love me, Shuichi... Then tell me when you feel bad. When you're sick, when you're depressed, when you're desperate, when you're lonely. Love isn't just pleasing the other one, it's trusting them! I trust you, so please, trust me!"

"But... I trust you, Akamatsu..."

"Then don't hide anything from me... Because you don't reassure people when you're ill and try to brush it off... Because I, no, we want to help you..."

He stayed speechless, his hand clutching his chest.

"I love you, Shuichi... That's why I want you to be happy, and if I can make it possible, I would be glad to do so."

The detective had slight tears in his eyes. As he looked at her, he spoke up.

"I... I understand where you're coming from..."

He sighed.

"I realize I didn't so such a good move, and I'm sorry that you felt like I wasn't trusting you... I'll try to be most out-spoken, if that makes you feel better..."

He wiped his tears and his face took a serious structure.

"Because I love you too, and I don't want to see you cry in sorrow again."

Her face softened and she hugged him, probably tightly enough to hurt his sore chest.

"Then... Call me by name... Please..."

"Sure thing, Kaede..."

"Hey... Can I kiss you?" she asked.

"N-not when I'm sick..."

"I don't have to kiss you on the lips you know..."

And as she said so, she kissed his cheek. He instantly blushed enough to hide his face's flushness.

"H-huh, by the way..." he stuttered.

"Hmm? Something's wrong?" the pianist asked.

"I'm not wearing the same clothes as before... When did that happen?"

She blushed intensely.

"When you were asleep... I brought you some stuff from your flat too, I was tasked to do so!"

"Kaede, you're hiding something... Right...?"

"I... I changed your clothes myself."

His jaw dropped as soon as the words hit his mouth.

"Y... You're not serious...? You're joking, right...?"

He scratched the back of his head and laughed, embarrassed, sometimes coughing up a bit.

"I-it's not fair to make fun of sick people..."

The detective's face when from its morbidly pale yet flushed state to complete red.

"I... I'm serious... I cleaned you too for a bit, you were getting sticky under your clothes and all..." shyly replied the pianist.

"K-K-Kaede!"

He hid under the sheets, trying to evade her gaze.

"Hey, Shuichi, that's not that important! I just hope you're feeling better now! Somebody would have to do it anyway..."

He poked an eye out of the sheets.

"Did... Did you change... _That_ too...?"

"N-no I didn't touch that! Don't worry!" she stuttered.

She breathed in.

"Of course it felt weird and all, but nothing major happened! I just thought you would feel better if you were less sticky!"

She whispered.

"You're really handsome though..."

"Wait what?!"

He got so surprised that his breathing got trapped into a coughing fit.

"Hey, Shuichi, you're alright?!"

"Yeah... What did... What did you say...?"

Kaede got immensely red too.

"I... I... Said you were handsome! That's it!"

He managed to get even redder.

"Y... You really think that?!"

"Of course I do!"

"B-but..."

"I saw you almost entirely naked, I know what I'm talking about!" she winked.

"B-b-but... There are far prettier boys out there... I look like a girl..."

"Why are you saying that? You're really pretty as you are!"

She sat next to him and put a hand on your shoulder.

"You shouldn't think that. You're really beautiful in my eyes! I'm happy not to see you wear your cap too..."

"B-but I'm sick right now..."

"A bit of flush doesn't change that!"

Kaede looked on her side.

"I... I think you're really cute as you are... You don't need to change..."

His face softened.

"You... You're a-adorable... Too..."

Her eyes filled with sparkles.

"You really think so?!"

"Of course... I'm sure everyone finds you pretty…"

"I... I'm so proud of you, Shuichi..." she suddenly changed in tone.

"For what?"

"For opening up to me! You're still timid, but I'm sure before you wouldn't have openly complimented me!"

She kissed his other cheek as some kind of thank you.

"See? Doesn't it feel good to open up sometimes?"

"I-it does..."

"I hope you'll continue this way!"

"So do I…!"


	9. Lueur d'Espoir

Winter break ended on this bittersweet note for Kaede.

On one hand, her feelings for Shuichi Saihara were mutual and they knew it.

On the other hand, he was still immensely sick with pneumonia and she had to come back to school in a worried anxiety.

After she had put her luggage in her dorm room, she crossed ways with Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut.

"Oi, it's Kaede! How's it going?" he excitedly said as he walked to her.

"Oh, hi Momota..." she replied, maybe not motivated to talk about space.

"How's your winter break been? Got cool presents for Christmas?" he asked.

"Yeah... Got new music sheets and my first concert... And you?"

"I got a galaxy print carpet, a figure of the Apollo 11 mission capsule... Hey, you're down? What's wrong Kaede?" he asked in a whole different tone.

His face had went from excitement about space to worry.

"That's... That's a complicated story..."

"About that," he suddenly changed, "you know where Shuichi is? I haven't seen him yet!"

She felt so, so awkward now. She was the only to know where he was.

"Shuichi is... He's sick."

"Wait, Shuichi is sick? That's why he wasn't replying to my messages then!"

Momota's eyes grew wide as if he had gotten a sudden realization.

"But wait, if he was just sick, why didn't he just tell me so?"

His face distorted.

"If he didn't reply, it must be cuz he's hella sick or something..."

"You got it..."

His expression reminded Kaede of herself. Such an intense worry, an intense fear...

"Is he fine now?!" he asked in a borderline panicked yell.

"I... I wish I could say yes, really, Momota, but he's far from fine..." she timidly answered.

"What does he have? Is going to be fine?! Where is he?!" he continued to ask.

"He... He has pneumonia..."

Horror installed itself on the astronaut's face.

"Fuck... He... He's home or..."

"No, he's in the hospital... It's better this way..."

He seemed shocked.

"How can you say that Kaede?! Hospitals are... Lonely! Boring! Scary!"

She looked away, almost ashamed.

"It's because... He's on his own Momota. His phone had ran dry. He had nobody to bring him to a doctor or to take care of him... I feel better knowing he's somewhere people can look for him..."

His face lit up a bit.

"What if we paid him a visit after school?"

"I'm down..." she simply replied.

Momota and Kaede went to class together as she was telling him everything about their sick friend (except for the more... Lovey stuff).

Their thirteen classmates were all there, and were each other, speaking about their break and interests to each other. It was only when the teacher showed up and asked for attention that there was any second of calm.

Kaede's neighbouring chair was completely empty, so empty, so lonely.

Momota was looking at her from his seat, waving her a thumbs up in encouragement.

"Hello class," announced the teacher, "I hope your break has been good and beneficial, and that you are back to working with your mind at peace and rested."

He blinked.

"Wait... Someone is missing, right?"

Everybody looked around until their eyes stopped on Kaede and the empty spot next to her.

"Saihara's missing? It's not like him" reacted the teacher.

It was better if it wasn't becoming a habit...

"Does anyone know what he has?" he then asked.

Her throat knotted as she raised her hand.

"Yes, Akamatsu?"

"He has pneumonia…"

As if it was a drama, everybody went even quieter. Awkward.

"I see. Take your homework you had to do for today..."

Maybe she preferred that people didn't dwell on it...

Class was slow and boring. Literature wasn't her favourite subject to begin with, but with all of what happened lately, noon arrived really late that day.

Everything said in there had just flown over head as she met up with Momota and Harukawa at the exit of the room.

"Kaede, ya gonna be alright?" asked Momota with clear worry.

"I guess... Time is just really long to pass..."

He sighed.

"Same for me... We should go to the cafeteria, we can talk about it if you want down there"

The pianist nodded in agreement and the three of them went downstairs for lunch.

"How did you know he was sick? Everybody was surprised to see he was missing..." he wondered.

"Because he went to my concert on Saturday evening. Guess it's the only time he found the strength to exit his house..." replied Kaede, her mind focused on that and only that.

"Oh, right, sorry I couldn't come... Did it go well?"

"It did, and I'm still happy it did, but was so worried for Shuichi..."

He put a hand on her shoulder as they entered the queue.

"I'm worried too, but we need to be strong for him, m'kay? He needs support right now! And if he's alone like you say, his friends need to be there for him!"

He turned back his head.

"Right, Harumaki?"

"Right."

Once they were sitting at a table, Harukawa looked at both of her classmates.

"So, Saihara's sick, right?" she asked.

"Yeah..." they replied in unison.

"Guess you'll go visit him tonight, Momota."

"That's what I had in mind yeah!"

"Guess I can drive you there if it's far from here. You know where he lives, Akamatsu?"

"He's not home, he's at the hospital..." the pianist replied.

"Oh. I'll drive both of you there. You'll take ages to go there by feet."

"You... You would do that Harukawa?!"

"Aw, I knew I could count on ya, Harumaki!"

The faux caregiver looked aside, slightly blushing.

"Yeah, sure..."

"Harukawa, you're awesome...!"

"Isn't she? She's my Harumaki!" borderline yelled Momota while patting his neighbour's shoulder.

"S-shut it off..."

He had a large grin and she had a little pout.

They reminded Kaede of Shuichi and her.

She was not sure if she was smiling or crying.

"Kaede, are you alright?" He asks suddenly looking at her.

"Y-yes...!"

She was both smiling and crying, and she knew it when she wiped her eyes.

"You're sad all of sudden."

"It's... It's nothing, really... I... It's between him and me..."

"Him? You mean Shuichi, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Now that I think back on it," said Momota, "you referred to him by his first name this morning..."

The pianist reddened on the spot.

He grinned again.

"Something happened between ya two, am I right?!"

"Stop embarrassing her like that Momota."

"Tell us Kaede!"

If they visited him together later, they would know as soon as Shuichi would call her by her first name anyway.

"We're on a first name basis now..."

Momota slammed his fist on the table.

"You did it! You finally did it! Man, this is a small step for you, and a giant one for both of you!"

"Quoting astronauts again, huh."

Kaede let out a small chuckle.

"Hey... You confessed to him?"

To which Harukawa pinched his cheek.

"Don't ask that in public you idiot!"

The pigtailed girl then turned to her female classmate.

"Reply to him if you want or not, it's not his business."

"But I wanna know if they finally advanced!"

Kaede looked away, blushing and bearing a small smile.

"I guess one day you'll know..."

He looked at her, disappointed.

"Aw, you're not telling us? Damn!"

"It's just that... It's not the good moment to do so... I'm still unsure of what's going to happen next..."


	10. J'Aimerais Pouvoir Te Croire

The hospital was a bit less menacing when there were three of them. It was as if group spirit made Kaede feel stronger, as if together, they could pull through this more effectively and more rapidly.

"Ya know where Shuichi's room is already?" asked Momota.

"Of course! I visited him yesterday. By the way, thanks for the motor ride, Harukawa!"

"You're welcome."

In front of the room, they all kind of froze.

"Momota, you don't rush to him as soon as you see Saihara."

"I'll try, but... I haven't seen him in ages Harumaki!"

"Please, please be careful when you hug him then..." whispered Kaede.

He blinked.

"I can still hug him, right?" he asked.

"Of course! Just... Just don't squeeze him too badly, okay? His chest still aches I think..."

"That comes with pneumonia I guess…" was his reaction.

"Yeah... I still don't exactly get how or why... But it seems pretty bad since he could barely breathe Saturday..."

"Holy shit! He needs to get better!"

"Momota, don't yell! This is a hospital..." scolded Harukawa.

Kaede calmly knocked at the door, and put an arm in front of her two friends.

"Yes?"

She opened and almost closed the door behind her, all the while Momota was trying to peek in.

"Hello, Shuichi. There's Momota and Harukawa with me. Mind if they come in?"

"They can..." he softly replied as he sat up.

Kaede then fully opened the door, allowing the astronaut to rush to his ill friend as Harukawa silently followed him.

"Shuichi, I missed you buddy!"

"Same Momota..."

Seeing his smile upon seeing a friend... It made Kaede's heart feel so much better in a few seconds.

"Can I hug you?" asked the purple-haired boy, as excited as a child on Christmas.

"S-sure, be cautious... Aouch!"

Momota immediately stepped back.

"Hey, what's wrong?!"

Shuichi was slightly holding his chest, an embarrassed smile on his face and an eye closed.

"You just held me too tightly... Nothing big..."

"I'm sorry buddy! I didn't mean to do that!" apologized Momota as soon as he could.

"I told you to be careful" suddenly spoke up Harukawa in a neutral tone.

"Just be softer next time...!" reacted Kaede.

Momota crossed his arms and smiled again.

"You feel any better? Kaede's worried _sick_ about you, ya know!"

"Not funny Momota."

"I'm a bit better than yesterday, thank you..."

"That's wonderful...!" let out the pianist.

She went to the detective and requested silence with a simple gist of the hand.

"Huh...?"

"Your breathing has evened out... It finally got slower..."

Harukawa, who had been standing next to the door before, stepped forward.

"The doctor told you anything about that?"

"They said I was getting better..."

His little smile clearly reassured Momota and Kaede alike.

"So, huh... Are you two dating or anything?"

Momota's question made both the pianist and the detective instantly feel weird, with a cough from the last one to accentuate.

"I-i-it's not like that Momota!"

"N-n-no...!"

They were both red as tomatoes but the denial was there.

"Aw come on, you both love each other, what are you waiting for?!"

"That he's back on his feet"

"That I'm not coughing up weird stuff anymore"

Their replies were almost synchronized.

"Momota, please calm down. Saihara's sick." spoke up the caregiver.

"Harukawa's right, he's far from healed..."

"H-hey," interrupted the ill one, "i-it's not that bad anymore...!"

To prove his point, he had a coughing fit and spit on the ground.

"Sh-Shuichi! You're still really sick!" yelled Kaede in reaction.

"Dude, that's like, not good at all!" reacted Momota.

"Sure, Saihara, you look really healthy at the moment." added Harukawa.

He inhaled just to cough again.

"You got up too fast! You need to be more careful!" told him the pianist as she put him back to bed.

'Hey, buddy... Ya sure you're not hiding anything?' asked Momota, showing a lack of trust unusual from him.

'No, don't... Don't worry..." timidly replied Shuichi, still coughing.

Unconvincing response, as the three other students look at him in doubt.

"Seriously, Shuichi, hiding stuff like that ain't cool! You're worrying everyone!" added the astronaut.

"He's right." inforced Harukawa.

"See? I'm not the only one thinking that!"

The detective still got up.

"Kaede, you know that I'm mostly healed by now, it's not a topic... To insist... On..."

His eyes went dim and she felt a borderline unbearable shiver down her spine. Such a déjà-vu wasn't good news at all. She remembered Shuichi's split personality from his previous deliriums… The aggressiveness, the borderline sexual appetite of someone entirely knew she was terrified of… She had to do something.

"Momota, Harukawa, back down!" yelled Kaede barely seconds later.

While the former did step back, the latter got a knife out, taking a defensive stance.

"W-what's happening to him?!" screamed the purple-haired boy in panicked fear.

"He's delirious with fever! Stay back!"

Harukawa lowered her knife down.

"And what do we do?!" continued to panic Momota.

"K-Kaedeeeeee..."

Walking to the pianist was her own crush, reminding her of a zombie.

"Get away from her!" screamed the caregiver as she rushed towards the delirious one, pushing him out of Kaede's way.

"You fucking predator!" she yelled as she pinned him down to the floor.

"Harukawa, don't hurt him!" urged the one dressed in pink as she got behind her classmate's back.

"Harumaki, d-dont kill Shuichi!"

The caretaker stayed quiet, looking into the dead fish eyes. The one trapped under her was trying to break free, but all he managed to do was coughing and grumbling.

"Why is he so weird?!"

Momota's shaky voice was unusual coming from him.

"Shuichi gets... Really bad fever episodes..." explained Kaede, her own voice filled with fear.

Harukawa was doubtful.

"You're sure? He seemed like he was about to assault you, Akamatsu."

"H-he did before, that's why I know it... He's not really conscious of it..."

"I'm not buying it. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't been there."

"Yesterday he was repressing these urges... I guess he's too tired to do it today..."

"Speaking of tired," interrupted Momota, "he's not moving or anything anymore..."

Kaede, instantly worried, rushed to the sick boy's side. She kneeled down, making Harukawa stand up again, and checked for his temperature and breathing. It… Got worse. His breathing was slowly going haywire again. His fever was rising again.

"He passed out... Please, Momota, could you help me get him to bed?"

She had to explain things before she could do anything. How frustrating!

And with only a nod, they both put their fallen friend back to where he belonged: a place to rest.

"Let's get out of this room and discuss this elsewhere, please..."


	11. La Face Cachée de la Lune

The three of them were in the cafeteria of the hospital (even if "small place to rest" was more appropriate), taking a breather after they had just witnessed.

"Huh," Kaede spoke up, "Harukawa?"

"Yes?"

"Why... Why do you have a knife on you?" she whispered.

"It's for self-defence. Saihara looked like he was going to assault you."

It was horrible to think he was probably going to do so if Harukawa hadn't stepped in at the right moment...

"He doesn't mean to do that though..."

"I didn't know Shuichi would be like that! He was creepy!"

"You... You're right Momota... It scares me when he's like that..."

"You explained that it was because of his fever, right?"

"Yeah..."

"I never got that weird when I have fevers, why does Shuichi do?"

"I wish I knew..."

The astronaut switched topics before she could even think about what had happened right before.

"So, huh... You're on a first name basis now right? How did it go?"

He winked.

Kaede reddened on the spot.

"W-well it's a long story...!"

"You don't have to tell him Akamatsu."

"I wanna know what happened between Shuichi and ya!"

"It's that... We had a long conversation about how he should trust himself more and stop depreciating himself... Then it went downhill..."

"As iiiiiiin?"

"I-it wasn't what you think it was Momota!"

"Make it clearer if you don't want him to imagine this kind of stuff."

"It's that... Between his deliriums and cough it got really confusing in my head... But I know that we... We... We..."

Momota had his eyes fixed on her as if he was starving from hearing what was next while Harukawa was doing her hardest to seem like she didn't care.

'We confessed to each other...'

That was making her happy to remember.

The astronaut got up and clapped in his hands.

"Finally!"

"I was wondering when you two would finally spit it out."

"I guess it was more obvious than I thought..."

"Your notebook is filled with doodles representing you two holding hands."

"How do you know that Harumaki?"

"When did you look at my notebook?!"

The girl in red just raised an eyebrow.

"I just happened to see it when we were in class, I would at least four times. You really like drawing both of you dating."

"That's awkward..."

"At least it can actually happen now!" cheered Momota. "I'm sure once he's all healthy again you're gonna kiss until you have to breathe again!"

"W-well for now he needs to get better, and that doesn't seem to be the case..."

When Kaede said that, she wasn't expecting to hear a high-pitched scream from not so far down the corridor.

"Shuichi!" she screamed as she rushed towards the room, leaving her backpack behind her.

"W-wait Kaede!" said the astronaut as he followed her in her rush.

Harukawa just got up and followed too without adding anything.

Kaede's shaky hand opened the door as soon as it reached the doorknob. She opened the door in a huge noise, only to completely freeze upon entering the room.

The morbid sound of laboured breathing was the first thing to hit her.

Then it was this stench of medicine and blood and sweat, a toxic mix she forgot to smell earlier.

Then it was the visual of the whole scene. Her knees were shaking.

She felt her two classmates join her behind her back. Nobody added a single word.

"W... What the..." muttered Momota, in too much shock to move by a single inch.

Kaede rushed to the bed's side, trying her best to ignore the screams getting louder and louder at every step.

She had to look at Shuichi's surprisingly wide opened eyes, a thing she wasn't used to see in his dim-eyed form. He looked more like a beast than a sick human, and she really wished it wasn't the case...

"What's wrong with him?!" screamed Momota.

Harukawa approached, weary, holding her knife in her hand.

"I... I don't know! It looks like some kind of delirium ag-GHH?!"

Before she could continue, Kaede felt a strong grip on her neck choking her.

The only thing she could see, she could lay her eyes on was that demented face of her friend, eyes devouring hers out in madness and this inverted grin gritting its own teeth as if they were fangs ready to bite into her own flesh.

"Sh... Sh..."

"Let her go you monster!"

Harukawa's hands grabbed Saihara's ones so firmly Kaede could feel her fingers gainst her skin. Where did she have such an inhuman strength?

Despite her hardest efforts, the girl in red didn't manage to get the hands away by a lot.

"When did Saihara get that strong?!"

She eventually did it as soon as Kaede was starting to feel her consciousness go dim. She lost her balance and almost fell on the ground, barely caught by Momota who was next to the bed.

The pianist was catching her breath as she heard grunts coming from her usually quiet classmate.

"He's possessed or what?!" asked the astronaut to Harukawa as he was putting his other friend in an armchair of the room.

"I don't know, but he's unusually violent!"

What was their shock when they saw Saihara starting to strangle himself.

"What the fuck?!" screamed Momota, going three shades paler.

"Saihara, what the hell are you doing?!" added Harukawa.

"Call a nurse!" screamed Kaede, coughing a bit as a consequence.

"He's going to asphyxiate himself before she can reach the room!" replied the caregiver as she grabbed the strangler hands.

On her shaky legs, the pianist got up and grabbed the bucket on the ground and rushed to the bathroom.

"Kaede, you're okay?!" asked Momota in a worried panic.

"More than he is!"

Noticing this didn't work, Harukawa started to slap him as Kaede filled the bucket.

"Goddammit, stop your bullshit Saihara!"

"Harukawa," urged the one in pink, "get down!"

"Huh?!"

In a reflex, she jumped down from the bed in a backwards jump as Kaede threw the contents of the bucket on Shuichi.

His grip on his neck got weaker and weaker until his hands weren't there anymore. What was laboured breathing before became desperate panting.

"W-what the fuck was that?!" screamed in unison Momota and Harukawa.

"I don't know!"

"Momota, do you have my bag?" Kaede asked.

"Y-yeah?"

"I think I have a forehead thermometer in there, can you give it to me?"

"Why not use the regular one on the nightstand?" asked Harukawa.

"Because he needs to breathe in, he can't have his mouth closed down!"

"Got it Roger!" finished Momota as he rushed to her bag.

In a swift move, he threw it to her and she caught it during its flight.

In a long thirty seconds, the small band of black plastic showed numbers. Kaede could feel her heart almost give up on her.

"He... He lied to us... Again... He lied again..." she choked on her own voice.

Fucking unbelievable.

"Lied again?" asked Harukawa.

"Shuichi wouldn't lie!"

"Not when it comes to his health then!"

A nurse and a doctor, that she had both seen earlier, rushed into the room.

"What happened in here?!" asked the middle-aged man.

"It's a long story..."


	12. Réalité d'une Illusion

The three high school students stayed outside for long, long minutes. It was as if the time wasn't flowing anymore.

The clock was frozen until the next minute passed.

The doctor and nurse finally came out of the room after so much time.

"Is he okay?!" Kaede got up as soon as they showed before them all.

"Hmm... Are you ready for some rather unhappy news?"

"Oh God no."

Momota and Harukawa stayed quiet, the former paler than ever.

"It turns out we diagnosed the wrong kind of pneumonia."

"Wait what?!" yelled Momota with anger in his voice.

"Oh. Of course." Harukawa's sarcastic tone was at its sharpest.

"There are... Different kinds of pneumonia?"

"We originally diagnosed him with viral bronchopneumonia, it turns out it is a bacterial kind."

"How did you mistake that?! You're doctors, you're supposed to know what sickness it is!" got upset Momota before Harukawa made him sit down again.

"Sir, it is complicated..."

"Huh?!"

"Pneumonia is a volatile condition to diagnose because a lot of different pathogens can cause it, and he displayed erasive alveoli filling before we noticed it was multiple lobes but localized..."

"In Japanese?"

"The symptoms threw us off guard. We're deeply sorry."

"Momota, calm down... Nothing is going to be solved by getting upset at anyone..."

Kaede breathed in and spoke up again.

"Is he going to be all right?"

The doctor looked slightly more comfortable.

"Now that we have everything we need to treat it... Yes, he will."

Kaede and Momota both let out a breath they didn't know they were holding as Harukawa slightly smirked.

"Huh... Sir?"

"Yes Miss Akamatsu?"

"What happened to him earlier?"

"What do you mean?"

"He..."

Kaede couldn't find the strength to say it. It was as if it was stuck in her throat.

"He tried to strangle Akamatsu then himself. We suspect it was because of a delirium." finished Harukawa.

"This explains the red marks on his neck, doctor."

"It does. I guess one of you threw water on his face in an attempt to calm him down?"

"I did..." whispered the pianist, looking down.

"You do know he could have gotten worse because of this, right?"

She nodded.

"Why didn't you call for staff?"

"You would have taken too much time. Saihara was already turning blue."

The doctor simply sighed

"You can visit him, but he's asleep for now. Don't make too much noise."

On that, both the nurse and he left the teenagers together.

"You've heard him..." said Kaede getting up.

"Yeah... He'll find it weird if we're not with him when he wakes up..." added Momota.

The three of them were completely silent in the room, which was unusual coming from Momota. It was heavy, and the main sound heard was breathing.

Three regular, one laboured.

Kaede didn't really know what they were waiting for. For the curfew of Hope's Peak? It was only 3PM, nobody was waiting for seven o'clock.

For anyone to say anything? Nobody was expecting anyone to say a word. Everybody was too disturbed.

For Shuichi to wake up? Maybe. It seemed as if the only times he was somewhat peaceful were during his sleep. Why would she want him to cough and spit and have deliriums again?

Maybe deep inside she wanted him never to wake up again.

A cough made them all break out from their train of thought.

"Shuichi!"

No, she wanted him to wake up again. She wanted him to look at her and get better.

"Kaede...? You... You look... Depressed..." he whispered to her as she got a hand on his cheek.

Why? She didn't know. She just felt like it.

"No, I was just worried, same goes for Momota and Harukawa..."

Despite his condition, he still worried for his friends it seemed.

"My memory's fuzzy again... I didn't assault you... Right...?"

"You did, but Harukawa protected me... I've explained them, don't worry..."

"Fuck... And, huh... You tried to strangle yourself."

She had to keep the first victim secret.

"W-what...?!"

A coughing fit enforced his astonishment upon hearing the news.

"C-calm down Shuichi!"

"A-at least I didn't attack you, right...? Right...?"

"You tried to strangle her, Shuichi..."

The detective gasped as his brother figure looked at him with what looked like worry more than disappointment or actual resentment.

"I... I... I'm so sorry Kaede... I..."

He waved his hands over his head, mostly in his hair, before burying his face in there.

"Momota!" hissed Harukawa.

"I... Erh, sorry..."

"Now it's in the air and he's going to blame himself again..."

"L-like, Shuichi, this ain't your fault! Ya weren't yourself!" he babbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"I still tried to... To kill... I tried to kill her Momota...!" sobbed the black-haired boy, almost choking on coughs.

"You shouldn't have told him!" yelled Kaede, resentful.

"That's wrong..."

"What do you mean, Shuichi? You wouldn't be crying if he didn't!"

"I prefer knowing why I scared you... Than wondering why..."

He looked at her with red, shiny eyes.

"I... I remember what I saw... Thanks to Momota..."

"What you saw? You mean you were conscious when you strangled yourself?" asked Kaede, insanely curious.

Momota and Harukawa's eyes were now focused on him.

"I... I saw some kind of apocalyptic world... We were all four trapped in this room, but it looked like a weird trial room... Everybody in the class was dead, and their corpses were on the ground, the walls, the ceiling, everywhere... You... You were both dead, Momota, Harukawa..."

Everybody was listening as if their lives depended on it.

"T-then this creature attacked you... And... I tried to stop it, and somehow, you wound up dead too..."

"What creature?"

"A charred thing... It was humanoid but... It had l-like t-twelve arms and... And... I-it took the s-shape of a Harukawa-K-Kaito hybrid..."

"You called me by my first name Shuichi!" cried Momota in joy.

"Let him speak."

"It... Strangled you, s-so I tried to s-stop him, but... As usual... I failed..."

She guessed it was the part where he actually tried to strangle her.

"T-then it grabbed my neck..."

His sobs were getting too strong for him to say anything.

"Momota, I think he really shouldn't have known... He wouldn't have remembered.."

"I'm really sorry... I didn't know it was that horrible for him!"

Kaede didn't reply, instead she went on the bed and took the crying boy in her arms.

"Shuichi, calm down... We're all safe and sound... It was just a bad nightmare..."

"I-it wasn't a nightmare... I-I was awake... I.. I saw it. You're all dead!"

He pushed her aside, his eyes not dim but... Weird. She wasn't able to describe the expression she saw in them.

"Shuichi?!" both yelled the pianist and the astronaut as a reaction.

"You're all dead! Get away from me!"

His sobs had become a cough between words. He got up. They were all freaked out by such a sudden shift.

Kaede grabbed his wrists and tried to keep him on his bed.

"You stay here Shuichi Saihara!"

"You're dead! Let me go!"

Harukawa literally jumped in to seize him from behind.

"You've heard her. To the bed."

"Let me go! Let me get out of here!"

"Is... Is he having another episode?" asked Momota, creeped out.

"I don't know, I can't tell..."

He rushed to his friend and got him from Harukawa's grasp.

"Huh?"

"I need to patch up my mistakes!" screamed the astronaut.

He sat on the bed with the ill one in his arms, still trying to free himself.

"Let me go! Let me go!" inhuman screams in his ears.

"You're crazy?! You're sick as fuck! You're staying here!"

After some struggle, the astronaut had pinned the other boy on the bed, clutching his wrists with his own hands.

"We're all worried about you! We're alive! We're here for you! Don't try to escape, this isn't a prison! I know hospitals ain't fun, but you're safer here than anywhere else!"

Saihara's breathing started to finally even out, as if he was soothing.

"Like, I'm really sorry I told you that stuff. Kaede's right, I should have been quiet. But nobody holds anything against you, ok? We're your friends and we're here for you, so don't hide this stuff from us! Also, please never cry again."

Any strength opposing the purple-haired teen had stopped as the only sound in the room were cries.

"I... I don't even know what's happening anymore..."

"Momota, you can leave him like this now." said Harukawa. He did so as soon as she had uttered the words.

Kaede grabbed the thermometer on the stand.

"Shuichi?"

He quietly took it in, and the beeping happened not even one minute later.

"That's what I thought, your fever is dangerously high again... You were delirious again... But it should be only better from now on..."

She sat next to him, a hand on his forehead.

"I'm good to wipe you again, you're all sticky..."

Momota and Harukawa awkwardly looked at each other.

"Wipe Saihara... Again?"

Goodness this was going to be awkward to explain.

"W-well... I was tasked of taking some stuff from his flat and brought it here yesterday, and... I happened to notice he was sweating heavily..."

"And so you changed Shuichi's clothes? Oh man, I can't imagine how flustered he was!"

It got a chuckled out of Harukawa.

"Y-you summed it up..."

Kaede slowly grabbed the bucket's handle and went to fill it with water in the bathroom, grabbing back the towel and washcloth from the day before.

"I need to change these too, they absolutely stink..."

Momota seemed doubtful.

"You didn't do _anything_ else to him, right?"

"I, huh... Okay, I kissed his cheek, what do you want more?!"

"Have you done the _dirty_ stuff yet?"

"Momota! He's sick! I'm not going to do that when he's sick and delirious!"

He winked.

"He didn't try to rape you, right?" asked the caregiver, crossing her arms.

"No... He was overly affectionate and kind of weird, but he didn't try anything that bad on me. Do I still have the hand marks on my neck?"

"They're fading away pretty quickly. More than his own, at least."

"Yeah..."

Kaede wiped his face of the sweat pearling on his skin.

"Everything'll be fine, Shuichi, if you trust us. We know you didn't mean all of this. I swear it's going to get better. Soon enough you'll actually be out of here and back at our dorm, and we'll make homework and rehearsals together..."

"Huh... Mind helping me a bit, Kaede...?"

"What do you need?"

"Y-you were right about _that_..."

"Guess you'll finally have to take that shower!"

Momota's face distorted into a somewhat perverse look.

"You ain't coming Momota!"

He laughed outloud.

"We wouldn't want to disturb your... Wet time, wouldn't we Harumaki?"

"Of course not."

They both left the room, but not before the astronaut winked at her.


	13. Purifie ce qui est Vil

"W-well that was... Weird..." said Kaede, confused and embarrassed at the same time.

"And, huh... You were serious about me helping you?" she then asked.

"It's just that... I'm not sure if my legs can support myself at the moment... And I feel less awkward if it's you than Kaito you know..."

"You have a point there..."

She smiled.

"Then let me help you around..."

She put him on her shoulder and got him slowly out of bed, careful to his moves.

"Your legs are really shaky! No doubt you wanted someone to help..."

They finally reached the bathroom, where Kaede finally got to take a look at the shower.

"They put a second seat in there... I guess they expected that to happen."

"Wait... You're going to get wet too if you help me," suddenly said Shuichi, "I'll have to do it alone..."

"I want to keep an eye on you! It's okay, I'll dry myself up if I get wet."

She started to unbutton his shirt.

"W-what are you doing...?!"

"It's obvious, I'm getting you ready! It'll be quicker if I take care of everything! You can relax meanwhile"

He was heavily blushing.

"I-if you say so..."

It became really awkward when he only have one piece remaining.

"R-really, Kaede, I can take care of that on my own...!"

A coughing fit made him realize he didn't look like he could.

He reddened even more when she started to get undress.

"We're fair on that then!"

"L-lemme do that hidden t-then..."

He went inside the shower stall on his own, barely walking and taking support on the wall, before she saw the piece of underwear fly in front of her eyes.

"I'm grabbing you clean stuff, don't mind me!" she said as she indeed picked that up.

Once she entered, he was facing away from her, but still turned his head towards the girl.

"Y-you really don't m-"

He blushed and coughed intensely.

"Why are you naked?! I-I thought you were..."

"I said we were fair on that!"

He looked away.

"Y-you didn't have to go so far...!"

"You're making it weird, I'm just here to help you out! You prefer a nurse doing it?"

"H-honestly? No..."

His chest went from tense to more relaxed.

"Huh... You're okay if I turn on the water now?"

"Let me see if it's cold before, okay? I don't want you to get sicker than you already are!"

He nodded and she directly went to the shower head, not even looking at him.

She didn't want to make it awkward and sexual, even if...

What was she even thinking?!

She shook her head and waited until the water got neither too cold nor too hot.

"I think it should be fine by now!"

She let him get back to the place in front of the shower head, looking away.

"Want me to wash your hair?"

He just positively nodded, as if he had lost his ability to speak. She grabbed the shampoo bottle and started on her task.

"You know, it felt weird to have your sit empty today. Momota was really worried for you too, so he had the idea to pay you a visit. Harukawa kindly offered us to bring us there on her motorbike."

Making small talk would make it less awkward, right?

"She did...?"

"Yeah! The teacher asked after you, you were supposed to make your presentation about one case for our talent showcase class... I think it was the time you investigated a closed room murder of a rich old man and his wife taking revenge on him..."

"Oh, that's right... I completely forgot about that..."

"It's not like you were in any condition to do it judging by today's deliriums"

He awkward laughed, "yeah..."

After she was done, the awkward feeling of the scene continued.

She started to wash out his face from behind, which meant she could only really reach his forehead.

"I can do it myself..." he whispered.

"Do you?" she asked, a washcloth in her hand.

"Y-yeah...!"

"If it's because of you-know-what, you just have to... Hide the nasty stuff you know""

"F-fine, you can do it..."

She went in front of him as he looked up, shutting his eyes tightly. She just giggled, amused by what was happening.

"You're such a dork, I love you..."

A quick look at the... "Nasty stuff" revealed he was actually hiding it.

What a dork indeed.

She wiped his face. He was blushing a bit less, but had a small smile instead.

"I'm really glad you're helping me out, Kaede... I don't know how I could have done it without you..."

"Not to toot my own horn, but I still wonder what would have happened if you hadn't come to my concert on Saturday... I'm still sorry that my parents have been so awful to you. They're really serious about good manners and all, they thought you were some rude dick... But I explained to them you were someone amazing, it's just that you were sick!"

She looked away.

"So no word about this to them, okay? I don't even want to know how they would react if they learned we've been naked together in the same shower..."

She then dried him off, and when she was almost finished, she just gave him the towel.

"You know what you have to do, right?"

He laughed sheepishly.

"Yeah..."

The shower time hadn't been as awkward as she had expected.

She let him leave before she did, being careful so he wouldn't slip up.

She got out after he told her he was at least in his underwear. She had dried herself before so she could regain her own underwear as soon as possible.

"It feels nice not to be all sticky, am I right?" asked Kaede winking at him.

"Yeah... Thank you again for that..."

"You're welcome!"


	14. Goutte de Sang, Océan de Rouille

It was time to go back to Hope's Peak, no matter if they wanted it or not. Momota still had a suspicious look on his face...

"So... How did the wet time go down?" he asked.

"P-perfectly fine! Thank you for asking!" snapped Kaede in embarrassment.

"Nothing major happened?"

"N-no! Nothing major!"

She was completely sure "seeing each other naked" counted as "something major"...

"I'm just teasing you! I know it ain't gonna do dirty that quickly! Ya two took forever to confess holy shit"

"I confirm." added Maki as she handed them two helmets.

* * *

On the way back to school, Kaede was left alone with her thoughts, barely hearing what Momota and Harukawa had to say to each other. All of this was so weird, yet so good, yet so bad. Every time she thought it had reached its worst, it was getting worse, then far better, then she would go one step forward in her relationship with Shuichi.

If only it hadn't taken him a pneumonia for all of this to happen...

But still... It hadn't bothered her to help him with such an embarrassing thing.

Sure, they were both naked, and she didn't really know she was doing, but it had felt nice to have been useful at least once. She felt like she had done something good, that maybe someone else wouldn't done as well or at all. And... She was happy he was getting comfortable with such a level of intimacy.

Sure, tonight would be lonely again without Shuichi there.

But this time around, she was sure to have Momota and Harukawa by her side, and maybe even more people. They couldn't be the only three ones to be worried for him, right?

Kaede was alone in her room, rehearsing some piano, trying to keep her thoughts off something she could nothing about for the time being.

A knock got her out of her thoughts.

She went to open the door, only to face her robotic classmate.

"Oh, good evening Kiibo! What brings you here?" she greeted him.

"Hello again Akamatsu! I'm here to ask about Saihara."

Oh dear...

"Then enter, please..."

He did so as they both entered her room, she sat on the bed and he stayed up.

"You don't want to sit down, Kiibo?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine as is!"

A short silence ensued.

"So... You wanted to ask about Sh... Saihara, right?"

"Yes! He was not here today... But I did not understand well why."

She blinked.

"You... Didn't understand?"

"Yes! I do not get what 'pneumonia' is... I wanted to search it on the school's database, but I thought maybe you knew precisely..."

"Huh... You know what lungs are, right?"

"I think so. They allow you humans to... Breathe. It's vital for you. Why?"

"You know how they work, right?"

"I do, Akamatsu."

"Okay, so... Sh-Saihara has a sickness that fills his lungs..."

"Sickness?"

Kaede blinked, surprised if not astonished. Such an advance AI… Didn't know what being sick meant? This was barely believable.

"You... Don't know what a sickness is...?" she asked.

"I hear about it all the time," he replied, "but since I can't fall sick, I have problems imagining it..."

"Then... Imagine your fans are obstructed by something"

The robot emitted some kind of squeak noise.

"It does not sound nice..."

"It's because it doesn't... That's why he's at the hospital..."

The robot looked clearly stupefied to learn about this. She thought it was obvious since the last time he had gotten sick he had stayed at the dorm instead of "going home"…

"I thought illnesses just required some medicine and charging batteries more because energy is drained faster..."

"Usually, yes, but Saihara has problems breathing, and we were all scared he could die... Actually, I'm still scared he can die..."

"You visited him?"

"Yeah, alone on Sunday and today with Momota and Harukawa..."

Another short silence.

"Huh... Akamatsu?" Kiibo broke the lack of words.

"Yes?"

"Can I come see Saihara next time?"

"Of course! I'm sure that he'll be glad to see you!"

"Thank you very much, Akamatsu!"

Kaede couldn't help but smile at her fellow classmate wanting to know how their friend was doing. She was sure a part of the class was worried for him but was quiet, but at least, a third person was joining them. She just hoped the small D404 room would never get crowded with sixteen people at once…

* * *

Kaede was back at the hospital after another long and uneventful school day. Momota and Harukawa had club activities, but they had written small messages for their friend.

Instead, a robot was accompanying her. A lovely robot.

She knocked at the door, a bit surer of herself than on the day before.

"Hello Shuichi!"

"Ah, hi Kaede!"

"Kiibo has come with me... Mind if he comes in?"

"Of course not!"

They both entered the room, but Kiibo stopped pretty early on.

"What's wrong, Kiibo?" asked Kaede, curious.

"These robots connected to Saihara... It's robot discrimination!"

"W-what?" she reacted, astonished.

"Did they agree to this?"

"K-Kiibo, they are machinery..."

"Why did they have to use these machines then?"

Kaede put down her backpack on an armchair.

"Kiibo, it's to help Sh-Saihara breathe! I told you he had problems with that because of his illness!"

"Oh! I hope you treat them well Saihara!"

"I... I try to at least..."

He looked at the mask in his hand with a slight smile.

"They've helped me a lot lately..."

"That's right, they were helping you breathe, right? It was… It was really scary to hear it..."

"You heard me... Wheezing?" he asked, worry forming on his face as soon as he heard her own response.

She gulped.

It wasn't surprising her that she had such a solid memory of this concert. It was one of the key moments of her life. She wasn't surprised either to realize that what had happened afterwards stuck in her mind like a vivid nightmare either.

She still had the picture and very clear sound of this distraught breathing that should have never been a thing in the first place.

"Akamatsu, is something wrong?" suddenly asked Kiibo, getting her out of her thoughts.

"Nothing! W-well, not really nothing... I just remembered you wheezing..."

Shuichi got up and walked up to her.

"Hey... Why are you wearing a hospital gown out of nowhere? I thought they didn't have these..."

"It's a long and complicated story. It doesn't even matter for the moment..."

It was a surprise when he was the one to hug her, for once.

In a reflex, she tried to check if his eyes were dim, but the fact his embrace was soft and not aggressive like a rib-crushing bro hug coming from Momota, she felt comfortable letting loose.

"Kiibo, what are you doing?" she asked, as they let go each other.

The robot was now standing right next to the bed. He lifted one of the two buckets on the floor.

"I think they're called... Serge! His name is Serge!"

"Serge...?" she wondered out loud, confused.

"I think Kiibo is referring to the 'spit' bucket..." whispered to her ear Shuichi.

"The spit bucket?" she whispered back.

"Yeah, they put it there as soon as I... Ignore it. Ignore it Akamatsu."

"It's Kaede for you!"

"K-Kaede..." he bashfully stuttered.

The robot turned towards them, a grin on his face.

"I hope you are treating him and his friend well, Saihara!"

"Huh... I don't really know if I did..." he awkwardly replied. "I guess you should ask them..."

Kiibo looked inside the bucket.

"What is this?"

He showed the inside of "Serge".

Kaede put both of her hands on her mouth.

"Oh god..."

It was as horrible as she remembered it.

"What is it, Akamatsu?"

Kiibo looked at it again. He didn't seem to understand.

Shuichi's face wasn't as much disgusted as it was bothered. As expected from someone who had seen and investigated corpses before.

"It... It's..." she barely muttered.

"It's bloody sputum."

The calmness in the detective's voice caught her off guard. It seemed as if it was no big deal for him that he was spitting up blood on a regular basis.

"Could you tell me what is it, Saihara?"

"Hm, well... You know what blood is, right?"

"Of course I do!"

"Did Akamatsu tell you about pneumonia?"

"I did..." indicated Kaede, still disturbed.

"It is not supposed to happen, right? This is why Akamatsu is so... Horrified, right?"

"It... It shouldn't have happened is more like it!" she heard herself yell.

She backed down, clenching fists, in an outraged stance.

"Akamatsu...?" barely asked Saihara, confusion all over his face.

"I told you to call me Kaede at least three times by now!"

Yes, she was pissed again.

"We told you to be careful! Why didn't you tell me that you were still spitting all this disgusting stuff?!"

He backed down.

"A-Akamatsu... I..."

"There's no 'I'! You're a detective, I'm sure you know when you're about to get bad, and you did nothing! Nothing to allow us to make you feel better!"

She took a deep breath, but her sudden fury didn't calm down.

"Are you stubborn or what?! We're your friends! I... You know I love you! Why won't you let me help you?! Why are you trying to be all secretive?! You... I know you spat right before we came in! It's still around your lips!"

Kiibo was looking utterly confused.

"It was..."

Saihara bent over to cough for a minute straight, spitting on the ground before collapsing to his knees, grasping for hair in desperate pants.

The pianist still kneeled down to him, as he had lost his balance, a hand rubbing his back.

"I..."

"Let me help you. That's all."

She put him on her shoulder and brought him to his bed.

"Saihara... I think you should listen to Akamatsu. Sick people have to rest. Serge is here for you too."

The robot carefully picked the mask, who had been sitting on the nightstand. He then, still very carefully, put it on the detective's face.

"Kiibo... Thank you for... Understanding this."

"You are welcome, Akamatsu. I wish I could get all of this, but I'm trying to do my best as a friend..."

"You've already done something good... You're not mad about the machinery?"

"No. I get that they're doing their best to help Saihara, because it's their mission. And Saihara has to make it possible too."

"You heard this, Shuichi? You need to get better to make people not worry about you... And so to take care of you, okay?"

She squeezed his hand.

He nodded in silence, which was followed by a simple and small smile of hers. Kiibo was watching, maybe a bit emotional (for a robot?) until his metal ahoge vibrated.

"Oh, but are you on a first basis with each other, Akamatsu, Saihara?"

"W-well... We did actually... It's a long story..." bashfully responded Kaede, looking away.

Here she went again…


	15. Nettoyage d'Hiver

"Okay, huh... Kaede? You're sure you wanna do that?" asked Momota, sounding extraordinarly unsure.

"Yes. You need to... See what this is all about" she replied, clutching the key in her hand.

They had discussed that after morning class. Harukawa didn't come with them, despite bringing them here on her trusty motorcycle. They didn't question it, or at least, Kaede didn't. Where they were going was pretty small anyway...

"But what? You've been so vague about that..."

"I... Can't find the words to say it. You wouldn't believe it."

She put the key in the door's lock, turned it around and opened the door. She braced herself for the worst once again, despite the fact she had already been here once.

They both entered, and then she remembered she had forgotten to clean up when she went there the first time around, as soon as Momota stepped on a noisy piece of plastic.

"Where is the damn switch?!"

"I think it's right on your left, Momota"

A fist slammed the wall, triggering the light to turn on and reveal where the pianist was bringing the astronaut in. It hurt to adjust from pitch-black darkness to the artificial lamps, and she regretted not having opened the curtains the first time around...

"Is that... Really Shuichi's flat...? It's a fucking mess!" he screamed as soon as he was able to see anything from it.

"Yeah..."

"His dorm room isn't like that at all though! What the flying fuck happened?!"

Kaede looked at the bed and pointed the mess formed by the sheets and bedsheets.

"Shuichi was living from his bed... That's why the whole flat is the polar opposite of tidy..."

She could see these bloody spots on the mattress and the floor near it from where she was. Those were still deeply rooted in her memory.

"Huh... That's chocolate spots, right...?" asked the astronaut in a shaky voice, a finger pointing at an ugly, ugly spot.

"I... I'm afraid it's exactly what you think it is, Momota."

His eyes bulged and his mouth opened in an inverted grin.

"That's... That's fucking gross! How did Shuichi survive that?!"

He continued to walk around the flat, visiting, careful not to step into the "bloody gooey shit" as he describe it. His astonishment was increasing each time his eyes came across something new, as if he was exploring one new floor of an abandoned building each time around.

Well, the flat did look like it had been abandoned for a week, so her metaphor wasn't that far away from the truth.

"So, huh... Kaede, why did you bring me here?" he asked.

"I want the both of us to tidy up that flat of his, you know... He'll need a cozy home once he comes back to spend his recovery in!"

"Aaaah, gotcha! But... With what do we clean out? This flat is a mess, and the mop is hella dirty..."

"Guess we'll have to start by cleaning that up..."

Momota repressed a squick sound before smiling.

"If it's for Shuichi, we need to get to work real fast!"

Kaede got out of her bag some random cleaning stuff she found lying around the school: a window cleaner, a small dust broom (in a plastic bag so she didn't dirty her backpack)... It was all pretty random, but she hoped to come across what she needed in the flat itself.

Momota somehow found where the mop and broom were, along with a bucket.

"I hope you brought somethin' to clean up the dust cuz it's fucking everywhere in here..."

"I did! I knew it would be really dusty, so I grabbed what was needed..."

A few moments later, he called him out, hands in his pockets.

"Oi, Kaede... Ya think Shuichi'll enjoy these?"

"Wha- Oh."

Here he was, grinning, space stickers in his hands.

"Are these... Glow-in-the-dark stickers...?"

"They are! Whatcha think?"

"Huh... Shuichi will be able to remove them if he doesn't like them, right?"

"Of course...!"

What a dork...

He put them away in his pockets.

"Okay, Kaede, ya ready for Mission Clean Flat?"

"Ready when you are, Momota!"

His eyes looked at the contents of her backpack.

"Hey, Kaede... What are those?" he asked as he pointed at a large piece of fabric.

"Oh, it's curtains! I thought Shuichi's one were really sad, so I picked some more joyful ones up..."

As she said so, she went to open the curtains of the flat.

Once in front of the window, she looked at the black curtains.

"They're so sad, no? I think it needs to go! But that's for after we've cleaned out everything…"

"You're right, Kaede! Let's get to work! What do we start with?"

"We clean the floor!"

She took the broom, but before she could actually use it, Momota had found the vacuum cleaner in the closet.

"Ta-da!" he yelled as he turned it on.

Instead, she decided to fill the bucket for the mop. A few minutes passed, and he seemed to have fun, until he came across the task of cleaning out one of the spots.

"How do we clean that shit up?"

"Let me do it!" Kaede said as she ran to him with her bucket of lemon-smelling bucket of water and a sponge.

"Ya sure of what ya doin'?"

"Huh... Yeah?"

She was half-sure, but she started to scrub the floor anyway. She would never admit she didn't really know what the hell she was trying to achieve.

"Maybe we should have asked Tojo to come with us..." he said as he turned off the vacuum.

"I agree, but I'm sure she was busy with the rest of our rooms. If we ever need help, we can still message her..."

She had managed to take off one or two spots on the ground, and while it wasn't something really great and fascinating to do, it wasn't half as annoying when she thought about doing it for him.

After half an hour or so of floor cleaning, they went on to clean up the dust on the different appliances and pieces of furniture, who had a grey coat over them.

"It will take less time, right?"

"I think, now that we master the removal technique!"

To keep each other amused meanwhile, space and music puns flew from one end to the other and back of the flat.

"Next time, let's play Fly Me to the Moon in the background!"

"Then we can sing Galaxy Hide and Seek I guess?"

"Perfect!"

It was really funny, when they were cleaning out a month worth of dirt.

"You know... I didn't think cleaning could be this... Not boring!" said the astronaut, with a grin on his face.

"Me neither... I guess doing that for someone close makes it better!"

The bed cleaning step was even quicker than the two precious ones.

"I declare Mission Clean Flat a stellar success!"

"So, now..."

His eyes started to sparkle, filling with stars (was she getting on the space pun train too?).

"It's time to decorate the flat with these babies, right?"

His hands were already full of star and planet and comet stickers.

"I guess so!"

The bland walls would look so much better with these on.


	16. Une Journée pour Tout Changer

Kaede had an idea: anyone could make a little something to fill their ill classmate's flat. Of course, it took some explanations to convince people to do it sometimes (family abandonment worked pretty well).

The class all agreed, which was surprising both Kaede and Kaito. It worked far better than expected.

"Shyhara needs stuff? Can I give him a dragon di-" asked the inventor, already drooling.

"Iruma no!" screamed back Kaede in horror.

"Does it have to be anything in particular? Like something related to his talent?" asked Kiibo.

"I thought that it would he cool if you each gave a reminder of yourself or your talent!"

"Gotcha!"

They only had to wait for the day after to get back so much stuff they could barely bring everything there with the help of Harukawa and Kiibo.

"Do you think all of this will fit in?" asked the robot, curious, holding a painting in one hand and Serge in the other (the bucket was his new best friend, and Shuichi had somehow allowed him to take it with him).

"I'm not sure if it will," replied Kaede, "but I'm sure going to try doing so!"

She opened the door and the four of them put as gently as possible the different gifts they had gotten from their classmates on the bed. It was quite a lot, and she knew Kaito still had the stickers in his pockets, ready to be stick on the walls and ceiling.

"I am going to take pictures of them so the others see what we did with their gifts!" said Kiibo as he softly put Serge next to its cleaning water peer.

"That's a really good idea, Kiibo!" replied Kaede as she was trying to see what would be where.

She took in her hands Angie's painting, which was a portrait of her, Chabashira and Yumeno together, smiling. While it didn't include him, it was still a pretty sweet gift to her, and she could tell by the three signatures and a "you're our friend!" text on the bottom corners that a lot of love had been put into it.

Chabashira and Yumeno still had given things on their own: a training device, as she thought it would help him in his club activities, for Chabashira ; a hat-shaped lamp reminscent of her own hat for Yumeno.

"It's pretty generic, compared to Angie's gift..." commented Momota.

"I don't think so! Chabashira's gift has a custom aikido outfit with it, and according to Yumeno, there is a secret switch on the lamp..."

Harukawa went to the lamp that Kaede had put on the night shelf to replace the generic and cheap one there before, and pressed on a tiny button on the "ribbon" part of the hat.

A sparkly, magic-themed pattern appeared on the ceiling.

"Damn, it looks hella great!" yelled the astronaut.

"Iruma must have helped with it. What did she give him, by the way?" asked Harukawa.

Momota and Kaede both tried to look out for the most perverted thing of the bunch.

"I know what it is!" then said Kiibo as he went to grab Iruma's gift from the other presents.

In the robots' hands were, despite the inventor's very nature of perversion, an alarm clock shaped like his (now infamous in their class) hat.

"Wait... It's not a dildo?!" asked Momota.

"It seems like she got the lesson. Surprising." added Harukawa.

"I'm surprised it's not sexual in any way..." finished Kaede.

"Come on, there must be something porn-related on there!" insisted the purple-haired boy as he tried his hardest to look for a secret button.

All he found was a secret toaster function. Strangely useful.

"It can do toasts but not project porn?! That ain't Iruma!"

"It is, though... There is this familiar goggle symbol under it, right on the battery cache" replied Kaede.

"Well... That's a surprise..." sighed the astronaut.

"What's that fucker's gift?" he then questioned as he got his hands into his pile.

"Do we really want to know?" asked Harukawa, crossing her arms.

A familiar, purple, weirdly shaped object landed in Momota's hand.

"Guess we know who offered the dildo... It even smells like Panta" he said.

"I-I guess we're not giving that to him..." muttered Kaede, looking away, blushing.

"Okay, who's next then?" said the caretaker.

"What's yours, Harumaki?"

"Oh, huh, let me get it..."

She grabbed from the pile a knife.

"Y-you're not going to give him that?!"

"Oh, sorry, wrong pocket."

She then actually went through the pile, a smirk from having tricked their friend on her face, as she got out a poster.

"Saihara's walls are awfully bland so I thought a poster would be better."

She then grabbed some transparent tape and put it on the wall, revealing the poster to be some... Crossover if Kaede had to describe it in one word of famous detective figures.

"I thought something bloody would be too disturbing for a flat."

"Aww, you're the best Harumaki!" said Momota as he put a hand behind her back.

"S-shut up...!"

Every time he was complimenting her, she was blushing... It reminded Kaede of something, but she brushed it off and continued on.

"Okay, hmm... A tea service? It must be Tojo's present!" she said as she delicately retrieved from its "Fragile" box the teapot, cups and spoons.

The details on them were really fine... It clearly was one of Tojo's favourites, shown by an exceptional care of the porcelain. It was even surprising Kaede that she would give out such a precious gift, but she was sure Shuichi would take care of it as much as Tojo did.

"That's hella fancy!"

"Tojo must trust Saihara if she gives him such a pretty present!" reacted Kiibo.

Kaede gently put away the tea service in one of the kitchen's closets and went back to the bed pile.

She found a book in there.

"Ah mystery novel?"

As soon as she opened the book, Amami's name appeared on there.

"Have a nice recovery"

Kaede softly closed the book and put it in the small bookshelf of the room.

"Who's gift is that?" asked Momota, puzzled.

"It's Amami's... I'm sure he picked this book with care, the edition is fancy with a hard cover and all"

Harukawa grabbed from the present pile what looked like an ant vivarium.

"There's no question about who this comes from"

"It's still an adorable gift! He may feel less lonely with bug friends, as Gonta likes to call them..."

Kaede gently put the huge vivarium-like piece of glass and wood not far away from Chabashira's present.

"This flat feels less empty now, but we didn't look at all the gifts yet!"

She got a Sherlock Holmes-like costume tidily wrapped in a plastic bag. It was tailor-made and one of a kind.

"That's Shirogane's present, there is no error there! I think it can only fit Shuichi too..."

"Man, she managed to get it right without him being around? Guess all that measurement bullshit from the beginning of the year wasn't useless..."

Momota looked at the bed.

"What's Shinguji's present. I'm a bit... Scared of it to be honest…"

Kaede found a small box, a green and red one, and opened it slowly, bracing herself for something grotesque. Instead, she only found a small necklace with a green gemstone at the end of it, and a small paper describing it.

"Aventurine absorbs negative energy, gives energy and, most of all, helps fighting fevers."

"What is it? Not anything weird I hope!"

"No, it's… It's actually really clever... I'll put it on his nightstand too..."

"What did Hoshi give, then?" asked Harukawa.

"Huh... I think it's this set of tennis rackets and balls..." Kaede replied as she showed them a set. "Fitting for someone in the fitness club I suppose."

"It means we can play tennis at the club too now! Fuck yes!" screamed the astronaut, fists in the air.

There wasn't a lot of gifts left, but the two cleaners looked at each other before looking at their robotic friend.

"Kiibo, what are you planning on giving Shuichi?" asked Kaede.

"Hmm... I thought about it, because I want to give something nobody has given Saihara before..." rambled the robot, clutching his bucket friend.

"I guess it's not a toasted or anything like that, because it would be 'robot discrimination'" suggested Harukawa.

"If they do not consent, it is robot slavery!"

He blushed.

"It is just... Something really personal... I would like to give it to Saihara directly..." he said.

Kaede softly smiled.

"We understand... Mind telling us what is it?" she asked.

"I-it is a special watch I made with what Iruma taught me..." he looked down, slightly smiling.

"That's fucking amazing, Kiibo!" yelled Momota as he patted the metallic shoulder.

"T-thanks, Momota..."

The astronaut then put his hands in his pockets.

"Kaede... Can I?"

"Go for it, make this room shine..." she answered.

Momota got in his fingers all kinds of space-related stickers, grabbed a chair in the kitchen, got up on it and started to glue little stars and planets all around the ceiling, moving the chair along so he could do so.

"I'm lucky to be tall, man!"

Harukwa went to close the curtains as soon as he was over. The sudden obscurity of the room made the ceiling look like a starry sky. As if, combined with Yumeno's lamp, it was an actual planetarium.

"It's... So pretty..." Kaede let escape her lips. She didn't expect the stickers' placement to look that great.

"It is beautiful, Momota!"

"Good job."

Kiibo clenched Serge again his metallic chest.

"Akamatsu... What do you plan on giving to Saihara?"

Well...

"I-it's... Really complicated..."

"It's not those curtains? They looked fine to me! They would be better with a galaxy print though…" asked then babbled Momota.

"No, I had a... Better idea..."

She sighed.

"I guess you may never see it... I'll tell you once it gets to be a reality."


	17. Symphonie Euphorie

Because of all the havoc they had wrecked for a few days, only two or three people were allowed at once in the D504 room. As such, Kaede had decided to go visit Shuichi only accompanied by Kiibo, both of which had a present to give him directly instead of using it to decorate his room.

She was nervous: how would he take it? She had never done such a thing before. The pianist told herself that, if she had been able to play the piano in front of hundreds of people on the week before, she could please her loved one. If she let herself stress herself too much, she would be unable to do what she wanted to.

And she clearly did not want this.

"Akamatsu… Do you need to be alone?" asked Kiibo out of nowhere, looking at her with a soft expression (as soft as a robot face could be, she guessed).

"What? No, no! I don't!" she tried to lie, knowing she would be more comfortable if she was all on her own considering what she had to do. She still did not want her friend to feel excluded or unwanted.

"Are you sure? You seem like you need a private moment with Saihara."

"I-I think I do… But you shouldn't feel excluded! If you want to see him, you should!"

"Then, Akamatsu, do you mind if I visit Saihara before you do?" he proposed, lifting a weight out of her chest.

"You could do that? You're an angel, Kiibo…"

He looked a bit perplexed.

"I am not an angel, I am a robot, Akamatsu!"

She could not help but giggling to herself.

"Of course I know this, it was just a figure of speech! It just expresses how kind you are!"

The robot blushed and looked away.

"I-I am just doing what is right! I will see you soon, Akamatsu!"

Kiibo rushed to the door of the bedroom, still flushed, before knocking furiously onto it and entering, seemingly really affected by her simple words. She was amused, to the point she only remembered at this moment what she was planning to do for Shuichi.

Kaede went into the nearest waiting room, opened to the floor. While nobody was sitting there as she installed herself, she still saw some patients and their loved ones around. She breathed out, got out something from her bag, read some notes. Thinking about music strangely soothed her, despite the connotation those sheets had for her at this moment. There was even the small doodle her sister had made on the bottom-left corner of one of those, a four-leaved clover.

She then heard someone sit next to her, saying her hello as a politeness sign. Kaede greeted back, surprised, until she looked up. Next to her was a boy she did not know of, but somehow, he still felt a bit familiar. He had a bouquet in his hands and looked even more nervous than she was. He even seemed a bit pale, but maybe it was due to how foreign he looked.

"Huh, hey… You're all right over there?" she asked putting her music sheets back into her bag.

He jumped a bit and looked at her, clumsily preventing his glasses to escape his face.

"I-I'm all good! I'm just a bit nervous!" he replied. Something sounded… really off about his voice.

"If it's not too curious of me… You're foreign?"

The boy grinned instantly, but his eyebrows and flustered face indicated to her that he was more embarrassed than anything.

"I think my accent's still really thick… I'm not Japanese indeed…!"

His wording was a bit weird, but if he was not Japanese, he was not so bad at it. She smiled and decided to chat for a bit, waiting for Kiibo to return from Shuichi's room.

"My name is Akamatsu Kaede! I attend Hope's Peak High School as the Ultimate Pianist, pleased to meet you! What's your name?"

"I'm, huh… Buraderu Furensuwa! I've been selected by Hope's Peak as a potential talent, those you call "Ultimates"…"

His name was really, really weird. Kind of like that Sonia chick from Class 77, who had graduated. Maybe she saw him as part of Class 80.

"Wait, does that mean you're in Class 80?"

"I am! And you're in Class 79, right? I think we saw you once or twice before!"

"I'm Class 79's representative, yeah. Huh, by the way, can you write down your name for me or something? I don't think I got it right…"

"Oh, just call me Fran then! People here have some problems with both my names so I won't mind!"

He seemed like a pretty nice guy. He was almost soothing to be around, with his energy.

"Huh, hey… Why are you here, if you don't mind me asking?" he said to break the silence which had settled itself.

"My… _boyfriend_ got really sick, I went to check up on him. He's getting better, but it's still pretty worrying."

She noticed his face grim up. Snap.

"D-don't make such the long face! Shuichi'll be alright, there's nothing to worry about, I'm just overthinking stuff!"

Fran chuckled, seemingly amused by her sudden goofing around. Kaede smiled softly, internally sighing in relief.

"He's got pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia if I'm not mistaken. It's pretty serious and gross, but I like to take care of him whenever I can. I like to feel useful and to help around! It's also less worrying to take care of the one you love, don't you think?"

He lightly coughed up in his sleeve.

"I don't know, I never had much occasions to do so. I'm usually the one who gets taken care of, if you see what I mean…"

That was starting to sound a little too depressing to the usually joyful pianist.

"Oh, what about you? Why are you here for?"

Fran's face lightened up again, as it reddened and as he looked away.

"I-I'm here for a friend… She broke her leg during a training session, so I'm just paying her a visit… She doesn't attend Hope's Peak, but I think she's the Ultimate Guardian if I was to give her a title…"

"What's her name?"

"Rin Senbon… I think her school is called Tsukikari High, but I'm not so sure anymore, I get a bit confused with school names in general…!"

"I don't know her, but she seems pretty cool the way you're talking about her! What about you introduce me to her once she's discharged from the hospital?"

"Let me ask her first before… I don't think she would mind…"

The foreign boy coughed up again, this time having a small fit.

"Are you all right?" Kaede asked, feeling worry bubble up down there.

"Yeah, it's nothing… I'm easily sick, it must be a small cold. Don't worry for me!"

"You are? That's a shame…"

"It's okay, I'm used to it. You shouldn't dwell on it, we just met!"

He coughed and smiled at her as Kiibo came back. Kaede got up and walked next to her robotic friend. Then something rang in her mind.

"Oh, right, Kiibo! This is… Huh…"

"Buraderu Furansuwa"

"Yeah, that! He's attending Hope's Peak, so he's our underclassman! Also I think he's foreign because his name sounds… not Japanese."

"Oh, hello, Buraderu! My name is Kiibo, and as you may have noticed, I am the Ultimate Robot from Class 79! It is a pleasure to meet you!"

"Pleasure to meet you too!

Fran got up and… gave his hand to Kiibo, just as the latter was bowing in welcome, the bouquet still in his hand. After a few seconds of staring at the other, the foreign boy just bowed too, embarrassed.

"Right, Akamatsu, Saihara is waiting for you! I told him you were here to check up on him too."

"Okay, thanks a bunch Kiibo!"

She turned to Fran.

"We see each other at school ASAP, okay? Have a nice day!"

"Have a nice day too, Akamatsu…"

* * *

Everything was usual afterwards: she knocked at his door, he said yes, she greeted him, they made small talk. Shuichi looked infinitely better than he had on the previous days, as his face was starting to regain some colours. He was still obviously sick, coughing here and there, but when Kaede saw what would come out of his mouth, no blood was to be seen.

Man, was it great to see her loved one finally get better.

"Hey, Kaede…" he suddenly blurted out, as if he was thinking of something.

"What is it, Shuichi? You look pensive all of a sudden."

"You… You're the one behind that present thing, right? Kiibo told me about it…"

It was meant as a surprise for when he would return home. Oh well, at least he would not be surprised about the ants and the aikido pole.

"I am, yeah… Why?"

He deeply reddened and looked at her with sparkly eyes.

"Thank you so much… I'm really touched by this…"

Kaede felt her cheeks heat up in one go.

"I-it's nothing, you know! I just thought your flat looked really empty and wanted to make you happy, so I asked everyone else if they wanted to make you something! Nothing big!"

"It's really… something big to me. Nobody ever did such a thing for me… It means so much to me, Kaede…"

She softly smiled back at him and held both his hands.

"I still haven't given you my gift…"

Shuichi seemed surprised.

"You… You're really giving me something again…?"

"Again? I haven't given you anything yet. Kiibo just did, right? I didn't."

"You… You gave me the VIP ticket… And you took care of me… of my flat… You gave me so much already…"

"Shh, this was nothing. It was all normal from me. No, I mean to give you a real something. Something you missed on."

She got up from his bed, got out her portable piano out of her backpack and installed herself right next to him again, putting the instrument on her lap.

"You probably didn't hear so well Saturday night, you were coughing a lot… So I thought you deserved your own private concerto. Of course, it's not a grand piano, so it's probably not going to be as good, but I really want to play for you and only you."

His face looked both embarrassed and ecstatic, as if he was just overcome with blissfulness. He remained silent.

Kaede got her music sheets out and started to play the pieces she thought fit the atmosphere the best. She had lied when she had said she was just going to repeat the concert: she had a whole other assortment, entirely made of peaceful yet happy music, right for this instant. She was still ending it with Clair de Lune, which she had ended up associating with their relationship and Shuichi in general. It meant so much to him, she could not just do the same thing again.

It lasted for half an hour, calm enough not to disturb anyone else on the floor. She did not mean to do bother Shuichi's hospital neighbours even if, deep inside, she hoped Fran and his friend had heard it too.

Once she was finished, Shuichi could not anything but applaud, tearing up. It must had really, really meant something to the poor boy for him to cry over something as simple as some piano music. He wiped his eyes and hugged her right as she put her piano away.

"Hey, there's nothing to cry about!" she told him, taken aback, but happy he seemed to have enjoyed her little show so much.

"It's happy tears… Thank you so much…"

She pulled away softly, looked at him. He was beautiful, when he was smiling, taken over by a melodic euphoria.

"It… It wasn't the same concert as Saturday's, right…?"

"It wasn't, I really wanted something unique to give you. I'm really glad you like it so much."

Kaede cupped his face in her hands and kissed his forehead, leaving a gentle pink mark there.

"You should smile so much more… You're beautiful when you're happy…"


	18. Retour à la Maison

This was it. This was the day where Kaede could finally, finally reveal the surprise she had planned for her now-boyfriend (informally, at least). Despite their best efforts to comb it down, there was still one rebellious streak of hair pointing directly from his head. It reminded her of her own antenna, in a way. It had its charm, actually.

"Huh, can I take it off now?" Shuichi asked, pointing to the blindfold on his eyes. His voice was still a bit hoarse from the abuse it had taken, but he spoke clearly without coughing, and it was good already.

"Not yet, but I promise it's worth it!"

She got his own flat keys out (she had kept them, because she had known she would need these for the class gift) and unlocked the door, opening it gently. It had nothing to do with how she had first found it, and she prided herself in the work Momota and she had put in. The pianist sneaked up behind her, excited to fuddle with his blindfold.

"Kaede, it's the class gift, right? I don't think it deserves so much build-up…"

"Nobody told you what it was going to be about, so you stay quiet and let me do this!"

The fabric came undone, freeing the grey eyes of the detective. Barely seconds later, a casually-dressed blonde girl was gesturing him to enter, an almost hidden grin plastered on her face.

Shuichi made his way into his flat again. Everything was the same as he remembered it to be at first: dark, unlit, blinds mostly down, he didn't even know where his feet were going. In a playful press of a button, Kaede revealed the scenery by actioning the blinds up.

Then he realized how different everything was since the last time he had lived there.

The place was pristine: the floor lacked everything from dust to the spots syrups and sputum had produced, the air smelled like flowers (or, more likely, smelled cleaning products), the bed was flawlessly tidy… A work worthy of the Ultimate Maid.

"Did you call Tojo to do all of this, Kaede?"

"Nope!" the pianist replied walking up to him. "Momota and I did it all on our own. It took some time, but it was entirely worth it. We didn't want you to get out of the hospital, only for you to have to clean everything."

The boy couldn't believe what he was seeing, eyes blinking at the speed of light, looking around as if he was trying to find something which _hadn't_ changed. The first gift which caught his attention was a poster on a previously naked white wall. He felt like a nerd as he called all the detectives featured there by their names.

"From whom is it?" he asked, eyes already sparkling.

"It's from Harukawa! She thought your walls looked too bare, so she found you this. It looks really cool."

"It does…"

Soon after, his eyes drifted to the painting on the next wall. A small smile accompanied his sparkling eyes.

"This is from Angie, right? She really is a good painter."

"Isn't she? I've heard Chabashira and Yumeno asked her if they could participate too."

The aikido gear right next to the painting was the next thing to get noticed, then the hat-shaped lamp put on the nightstand, as if seeing the magician's face brought him to the lamp.

"Oh, that's right, Yumeno's gift works better in the dark!"

"I guess I need to stay in-shape during holidays… Well, for the next holidays. I guess I have to press this button?"

"That's the one! Ready?"

"Ready."

Kaede pressed the small remote's button to close down the blinds. Gradually, the darkness allowed for the effects of the lamp to appear and shine on the ceiling and floor.

"Wouldn't you say it's… magical?" she said, not taking her pun very seriously.

It got a chuckle out of him. "I guess the stars on the ceiling are Kaito's work, right?"

"I wonder how you got it, Shuichi. The answer wasn't obvious."

"I suppose Kaito himself would have said it was thanks to my detective skills."

Next to the fake hat was Iruma's gift, the not-so-obvious, cap-shaped alarm clock. Shuichi's curiosity was peeked, which she could tell because he was searching for anything suspicious about it.

"You seem surprised by it too! Momota spent ten minutes searching for anything sexual about it, but all he found was a toaster function."

"A toaster, huh…"

"I know having a toaster on your nightstand doesn't make much sense, but an alarm clock on your kitchen counter doesn't make much sense either, so… We decided to leave it there."

The tennis set and vivarium didn't get much talk about them: the persons behind the gifts were obvious guesses. Same went for the tea set, whose beauty and fine porcelain still got his compliments, but which got quickly put away in the kitchen's furniture with the greatest care. The aventurine necklace and the mystery novel both got a pleasantly surprised look from their new owner.

"Is it everything? I've received Kiibo's and your gifts before, so I think I've seen everyone's presents… I still don't know what to say…"

"I think it's everything the class gave you," she lied, hoping Momota and Harukawa had gotten rid of Ouma's prank gift already. "I guess you can all thank them when you'll be back to school."

He wiped some forming tears with his sleeve.

"I still can't believe you've gone through all of this… You took care of me, cleaned my flat and organized something with the class for me… What did I do to deserve such a treatment?"

"You've just been sick, Shuichi. We just wanted to make you feel better while you were at the hospital and afterwards. And it's not just me, but it's also Momota, Harukawa, Kiibo, and all the others. They've all done a little something for you, as small as it can be."

She shined him a familiar, warm smile.

"So don't only thank me, okay? We've all done something, and so did you!"

Shuichi seemed surprised by what she had just said.

"What do you mean by that? I didn't do anything. Well, except being sick, I guess…"

"It's already impressive to get through pneumonia, don't you think? Especially as it messed up with you a lot…"

Kaede gulped. She tried her hardest not to remember everything bad which had happened throughout the week: the deliriums, his unconscious murder attempt on her, the nightmares, confronting her parents about his behaviour at her concert…

"I suppose you could see it this way," he replies, looking up, before jumping in place. "It reminds me, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I'm very sorry for everything that happened back at the hospital. I wasn't conscious of it, but I don't think I've properly apologized. You may have come over the fact I almost strangled you to death, but I don't feel like I can move on from that yet."

"Oh, Shuichi… You really shouldn't clog up to such things. It was an accident. A very violent one," Kaede replies from the depths of her heart, "but an accident nonetheless. Because I know you wouldn't do that to anyone otherwise."

He blushed. For once, she could safely say his face was red for the good reasons.

"I'm relieved you still believe in me after everything that happened. You, and everyone else of course. I'll have to thank Kaito, Harukawa and Kiibo too for everything… You think I should prepare a speech?"

"A speech? I don't think that'll be necessary, you know! You should just focus on resting and catching up on school work for now, don't you think?"

The detective's eyes went wide as he gasped.

"That's right, I missed an entire week of school, and I almost forgot about it! Do you have what I missed on you right now?"

The blonde chuckled until it became a joyous laugh.

"I didn't plan on giving you your homework yet! You should probably at least give yourself the weekend to rest properly. I'm sure you're tired of sleeping, and I would be if I was you, but I'm sure you're still pretty exhausted from the illness you've just come out of."

"Wait, does this mean I have another week without class? I don't think I've been told about that."

"You know Hope's Peak, I'm sure they won't blame you if you take a few days to recover and be back into the swing of the things. I'm sure you'll catch back fairly easily."

Kaede sighed.

"Phew… I'm so glad I can finally tell anyone you're out of this mess… Please never let yourself get that bad again, okay? We need you to be alive and well!"

"I think I can't do that anymore," he replied smiling, "when so many people care about me and would be able to go to the other side of the world, just so I would feel better. It would be awful of me not to be able to give that back to my friends in case it happens."

"…Can we be more than friends already, Shuichi?"

The sudden drop of joy in her tone and her head looking down creeped him out more than it should had.

"What d-do you mean?"

She looked up at him again, with a certain determination burning in her eyes.

"After all we went through… I think it's time for us to become an official couple."

The boy sighed, relieved. "Oh, that's what you meant…" He followed, getting close to her. "Of course it is…"

Her hands cupped his face as she pulled him for a kiss he wouldn't had refused for anything in the world.


	19. Note de Clôture

The place was larger than he remembered it to be.

Perhaps the fever had messed with his brain on his girlfriend's premiere. It was the same place as before, but the air was so much different. It wasn't cold, it was actually very warm, to the point Kaito was feverishly waving his hand as to make himself some fresh air. To think he had worn a mask the first time around…

"So, huh, Shuichi, where are we seated?" the astronaut asked, looking over his best friend's shoulder.

"They should be around… here!"

The seats they had were right under where he had been a month prior. Whether it was a pure coincidence or Kaede's doings were beyond his understanding, at least for now. Choosing who picked where to sit on the small, three-seat row was easy: Kaito took the middle seat as soon as they had checked if it really were their seats, then the two others followed.

"You better not scream Akamatsu's name during the concert, or else I'll kill you," Harukawa muttered to her neighbour.

"Naaaah don't worry! I'm sure Shuichi doesn't wanna miss any of it anyway!"

"Guys," the detective hushed as he tried his hardest not to look or sound embarrassed, "it's starting…"

The lights over the seats went off, and the lights on-stage replaced them. In the centre of the stage, a black tailed piano. Entered a blonde teenage girl dressed in light pink and black. The boy's heart fluttered as soon as she made her entrance. The pianist bowed in silence to her audience and made her way to the piano, sitting in front of its keyboard.

The first compositions she played were some he had heard before, whether it was during the practices he had watched her do, the first concert (basing it on the poor, blurry memories he had of it) or the private one she had given him at the hospital. He didn't mind, quite the opposite: it felt immensely different to hear them in such a place, especially as he wasn't coughing like a degenerate this time around, and there was no machinery to disturb the delicate notes either.

The music made him lose the track of his thought process. One second he was in a concert room with his best friends, telling himself in a silent voice how funny it was to see Kaito in a tuxedo and Maki having to hush him every two minutes to prevent him from yelling encouragements, the next he was transported to a place he didn't know about, but which was probably located in the behind of his mind.

It made him think back on everything that had happened in such a short span of time. Kaede had been all over the news: a teen prodigy, making piano trendy again, shining all over Japan and perhaps, soon, Asia itself. Gone was the time where she had been at his side as he was coughing up whatever was stuck in his lungs. It had given his place to happier, less tense times spent together and with friends. Never had he felt so close not only to her, but to their two friends too.

Shuichi's memories from his illness were… corrupted, in a way. He knew with an iron certainty that it had been a horrible time to go through, with the constant discomfort of his fever and a constant cough rattling his chest in great waves. However, he wasn't exactly sure of what exactly had come down in front of him. He was aware of having had delirious phases during which he had been both perverted and violent (two things he never had thought he could be, on purpose or not).

But he had come over those. It had taken some time, because he had blamed himself for what he had tried to do while his fever had spiked, but he had come over that guilt. It had taken Kaito "an extensive self-esteem session", and Kaede's constant motivational speeches, but it had worked. He could finally go back on the events and tell himself, it was all over, and it was fine.

This hadn't been his fault, well, once it wasn't related to his lack of self-care.

During the entr'acte, they chatted about random topics they had on their minds: classes, classmates, the concert, back to classes. Well, Kaito was the one mostly speaking: Harukawa was desperately trying to make him be quieter, and Shuichi left to the bathroom at the beginning of it. Once again, quite the different view from the previous time, despite going to the exact same bathroom.

He recognized two familiar faces. A blonde woman, dressed in a fancy blue dress with beads, holding a pink-eyed man dressed in a shiny tuxedo complete with a fitting bowtie. He gulped. Their first, and latest, meeting hadn't gone… nicely.

"Hello, Mr Saihara," the man said in his direction, in a calm tone he could only describe as intimidating on purpose. His wife greeted him in a comparable manner, maybe colder than her husband's.

"Hello, Mr and Mrs Akamatsu."

"I see that you are doing better than the last time we saw you," the man continued.

"What on Earth did you have?" she then asked.

That question was far more embarrassing than whatever he had expected them to ask him, would they meet again.

"Uhm…" He hesitated, because while a part of him thought he should answer them, the other was telling him it wasn't their business. "I got pneumonia..."

The woman's face coloured with shock, while the father's softened.

"So you were seriously ill… Excuse us for last time, then. We should have noticed you were unwell and not just rude."

"It's… It's okay…" he replied, when he didn't agree with his words. It was rude of them, and while he did somewhat get he must had looked very suspicious around their daughter, that was probably unfit of whatever occupation they had.

"You collapsed in our darling's arms," she continued, "and we saw how dear you were to her. Please, treat her as she deserves. We can only trust you with her, since she was so adamant on keeping an eye on you."

Now this was surprising.

"I knew Kaede was determined," he replied, "but what do you mean exactly? I'm not taking her away from you, I promise."

"You don't get it, Mr Saihara," the father interjected. "It is not you who is taking her away from us. She's her own person and soul, she doesn't belong to anyone. She chose you, this is all it is. We've come over it. We just want to make sure you will make her happy."

"What did you mean by adamant?"

Not that he didn't have an idea, of course. It was closer to curiosity, because he didn't remember much of that evening to start with.

The parents looked at each other, eyes softened.

"Kaede was supposed to talk to the attendees after the concert ended," the woman replied. "However, she insisted so much on being with you, worried beyond her mind and crying, we could not make force her to do so. She bailed her way out of rehearsal to check on you at the hospital. You really are worth the world to her."

"We are not giving this boy enough credit, my dear."

Shuichi blinked.

"What do you mean?" the woman and the boy both asked.

"Mr Saihara," the man directly stared at him. "Be honest here: you knew you were sick."

"I did… Why?"

"You also knew it was getting out of control."

"How… do you know that?" Cold sweats went down his back.

"Suspicious bathroom breaks. Bloody sputum. Very high fever. Wheezes. I examined you when you collapsed in my daughter's arms. Should I continue?"

"I-it'll be enough, thanks…"

The man crossed his arms. His cold stare sank in the detective's eyes.

"What I meant by this, is how determined and stubborn you were for her happiness too. You were willing to pull through illness to see her play because you wanted to make her happy. I am certain you love her piano music, but you were aware this was going to be an awful time for you, am I wrong?"

"N-n-no…"

"It goes without saying, never do that again."

"Understood."

The woman smiled at him.

"We wish you a good fortune in your life, Mr Saihara. Please take care of both our daughter and yourself."

"I'll do."

Shuichi soon came back to his seat, Harukawa and Kaito not having spotted him yet. It was obvious: they were kissing each other, while he served as the third wheel.

"S-Shuichi?!" Kaito screamed suddenly. "When did you come back?!"

"Moments ago. Don't worry, I wasn't looking, Kaito."

"I'm sure you'll do the same to Kaede later anyway!"

The detective could feel his face heat up by the moment.

"Don't say it like that," Harukawa deadpanned. "You're making it sound like he's going to copy us."

"Sorry, Harumaki!"

"That's better."

Shuichi preferred to laugh the situation off.

The second part of the concert came sooner than he expected it to. Did it last so short last time? Well, between two coughing fits and a wave of chills, it had just seemed longer to him. He got lost in her music again, this time sweeter memories resurfacing. Remembering his entire class had him something (yes, even the Panta-smelling dildo. Kaito had hidden it in the fridge). His friends visiting him everyday when he was hospitalized, even when he could become violent when his fever would spike. Discovering the true nature of Kaede's feeling for him.

In short, feeling loved and having the greatest company at his side, during the good and the tough times.

Shuichi had learnt something precious, there was no hiding it. He always thought of himself of being truly alone: he loved his friends, and Kaede had stolen his heart, there was no doubt there, but he still felt like they would find a replacement for him would he show how deep his weaknesses were. It was stupid of him, on second thought: if they were his friends, it was to enjoy his company and care for him.

Parental abandonment had stricken him more than he had thought before. As if everyone was no better than his parents. That wasn't the case, it simply wasn't: there were people out there who would cry for him to get better, and people who would do anything to make him feel good, even in the worst situations.

Kaede, huh. This girl truly was unique.

She was popular in school and in the class, there was no doubt there. He had always thought she looked charming, but what he hadn't expected was for her to go up to him and start speaking to him. Him. The guy hidden under a cap, on the front row next to the windows. Kaito had more or less done the same for him, but Kaito would try to be everyone's big brother, so it hadn't been as surprising.

It was quite a twist when, in his hospital room, she had admitted to having fallen for him. Him. The guy hidden under a cap, and bedridden with a tremendous case of pneumonia. He would get violent. He would get perverted. He had almost killed her before almost taking his own life. But she had stayed by his side, the entire time, leaving just to sleep and attend class. She had spent hours of her life to his side, even when he was knocked out.

He had fallen for her. He was completely hers. It was obvious from the point where he had been able to exit his bed simply because "it was Akamatsu's concert". Her parents were right: he really was stubborn when he wanted. In the end, she has saved his life: would had it not been for her concert, and for his feelings for her, his two lungs would have collapsed, and him with them.

There were no words to describe the depth of his gratitude towards the pianist. For being an amazing friend. For saving him. For being his lovely girlfriend, he would take a bullet for. He could trade his life for hers. He just knew this would never happen, because he wouldn't want to leave her side either.

The concert ended before he knew it. As they got up, Kaito patted his best friend's shoulder, displaying an enormous grin on his face.

"Go for it, bro! It's yo lucky day!"

The smaller boy gulped a bit, nodded and smiled at the astronaut. As he left the balcony, he saw the purple-haired teen waving him a thumbs-up with one hand and hold his girlfriend's in the other, girlfriend who was smirking at him.

That must had meant good luck in Harukawan, right?

Shuichi walked downstairs and past people and doors, until he saw the one whose sign displayed a very familiar name: "Akamatsu K.". He looked around: her parents were nowhere to be seen. Huh, that was weird. He could have sworn they were already there, last time.

He knocked at the door, only to be greeted by the musician herself. Her concert attire and makeup were even prettier when seen from close. He could have almost drowned in her eyes, would he have had the time to do so.

"Shuichi! You look great. Come in!"

And so he did, looking around her room. It was mostly matching the auditorium itself: burgundy carpet, black walls, a sofa, a table… It was covered in her stuff: coat, makeup, hair straightener…

"I asked my parents not to come for an hour, so we have this room for us and just for us for this time," she told him with a smile and a flirtatious wink.

"W-well… I'm not sure what to say this time, except that it was even better than last time…"

"Of course it was, because you're doing way better this time around! It's easier to enjoy things when you're not sick, isn't it?"

"I guess you're right…"

He rubbed the back of his neck, then looked at her. It was still a bit awkward. He wasn't used to all that couple shtick yet.

"Huh, Kaede…?"

"Yes?"

"I've got something for you…"

She walked to him, curious eyes feasting upon what gift he had for her.

"You know how I have that detective job on the side? I had some wage left so… Here you go…!"

He handed her a small pink box.

"Aw, thank you! You shouldn't have…"

The girl opened the box, only to barely retain a squeal.

"These are adorable, Shuichi! Where did you even get these?!"

"Oh, there's a shop with all kinds of fantasy jewels not far from the agency. I immediately thought of you when seeing these ones."

Kaede handed the box to him again.

"Mind putting them on me?"

It was with emotion that he put the clef-shaped earrings on both of his girlfriend's ears. She looked even prettier with gratitude washed all over her face.

"How do I look?"

"Splendid…"

She carefully put the box and the earrings she had worn previously away, then came back to him.

"You know what this day marks, right, Shuichi?"

"It's the first monthly anniversary of us dating, right?"

"I knew you would remember... You're amazing…"

Kaede locked her arms around his shoulders and neck, eyes directly glancing into his.

"Promise me we'll stay together, whether life turns out to be a symphony or a cacophony."

No word needed. All he did, was to lock her into a tighter embrace and kiss her.


End file.
